


A somewhat eventful trip through Hoenn

by MindFox



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Pokemon Journey, Team Aqua (Pokemon), Team Magma (Pokemon)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 27,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26566303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindFox/pseuds/MindFox
Summary: A series of coincidences leads to Nicholas Maple crossing paths with a Brook named Ralts. With a starter pokémon in hand, will the two reach their respective dreams of escaping his cousin's shadow and becoming the strongest pokémon in the world?
Kudos: 1





	1. A roundabout way to get a starter

I felt a yawn come as I sat in underneath the shade of the tree with a book in my hand. It was just hot enough, and the breeze just cool enough to hit the right temperature where all you wanted to do was sleep. After a few seconds of fighting it, I decided to just give in and let the yawn out. After doing so I glanced over at the group of kids crowded around the gate to my house.

“You know that he’s not getting here for another hour right?” I asked as I took stock of the group. They were all pretty young, maybe a year or two younger than me. In other words, they were the perfect age to start Pokémon training.

“We don’t want to miss him when he gets here.” One of the kids responded.

I sighed, partly because I had to deal with my cousin’s fans, but also because I had just told a crowd of tweens ‘kids’.

I was not an old man in kid’s body, no matter what my sister said.

“Listen I don’t really get the big deal here. Uncle Norman lives down the street from here, why is it such a big deal that his kid is coming back home.”

“Are you dense?” I flinched back a bit as one of the kids, a girl with blond hair, cut me a glare. “Brendan is one of the strongest trainers In Hoenn.”

“And he’s from this town, this tiny little town. He’s pretty much the coolest trainer from here ever.” Said another kid.

“Like I said, gym leader, who is living here right now, just down the street.” I pointed both of my fingers in the direction of Uncle Norman’s house. The kids had the good sense to at least look a little embarrassed.

“Well, I guess a gym leader is pretty cool.” Said the first kid while looking away. Then his eyes widened and he turned to look right at me. “But not as cool as bringing down both team Magma and Aqua.”

And that was enough to set off the rest of the group again. I watched them as they excitedly chatted and talked amongst themselves. I rolled my eyes and went back to my book. It was actually quite the page-turner. A breakdown of the forty or so most popular pokémon in the Hoenn region championship, as well as their most effective counters.

I chuckled as I read an entry telling me that the perfect counter to Metagross was Camerupt. Steven had torn his way through both team’s main forces on live TV. His Metagross had taken down scores of pokémon that day, Camerupts included.

Both my uncle and my cousin, in the few times I actually had a chance to talk to the latter, had always stressed the same thing. A cunning and competent trainer, dedicated training and a strong bond with a pokémon could overcome almost anything.

Including type advantages. Of course, it was still a bad idea to send out a fire type against a water type. Having these things just turned it from an instant loss to an extremely tricky and difficult battle.

I kept reading, doing my best to ignore the gaggle of fans just a few feet away from me when I heard a noise from above.

I closed eyes and turned my head upwards.

“Please don’t be doing something dramatic, please don’t be doing something dramatic.”

I opened my eyes and watched as Brendan jumped off his Salamence, spin through the air, before getting caught by his Salamence right before he hit the ground.

The teenager and dragon slowly descended to the ground, before landing directly in front of both the tree I was sitting under, the front door, and the fans on the other side of the gate.

“Good job.” He said as he petted the Salamence. The dragon purred as Brendan got off and returned him to his Pokéball. He glanced over at me and waved. “Hey, Nikki.”

“Don’t call me Nikki,” I said on reflex. Brendan had been shortening my name from Nicolas to Nikki for years now. I had long given up on actually trying to stop him, but it felt weird just not saying anything in response. “Did you have to come in on the dragon?”

“What did it scare you little guy?” He said in a joking voice. I rolled my eyes at his attempt at humor.

“No, but it did rile up your paparazzi over there,” I said as I pointed at the group at the gate with my thumb.

“Paparazzi, what are you,” He paused as he looked over my shoulder before suddenly taking a step back. He had apparently not noticed the crowd gathered at the gate as he flew in. “Who are they.”

“Brendan over here.”

“Show us you’re Pokémon”

“Tell us about how you fought team Magma and Aqua.”

I smirked as I got up from under the tree and walked over to Brendan. I reached up to put as much of my arm over his shoulder as I could.

“Why they’re your adoring fans,” I said with a smile before suddenly switching back to a neutral expression. “They’ve been here all morning waiting for you and Professor Birch.”

“Oh,” He looked over at them and waved lamely. “Uh, hi?”

I grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him inside.

“Wasn’t about to let that go on any longer.” I slammed the door behind me as we took off our shoes.

“Don’t be so hard on them. You used to be just like them. Hey, remember when Wallace passed by a few years ago and you were begging to see him.” He told me as we walked into the hallway

I smiled in spite of myself.

“And I begged and begged but in the end, I got sick that day. I still remember sulking about it for like, a year afterward.” I continued as we got into the living room.

“It was more like a week.”

Brendan’s face lit up in a smile as he swung around the couch.

“Ali.” He said as he pulled my older sister up from her laying position and into a hug. “Good to see you.”

“Good to see you two Brendan, now let me go back to watching my show or I’ll have Kiki eat you.”

Kiki was my sister’s only Pokémon, an absolutely terrifying Banette. At least until you had a chance to learn that she was a complete sweetheart that wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Brendan had not had that chance. By the way that Kiki was currently floating behind Brendan with her mouth wide open, I would bet that he would learn quickly. I left the room and headed into the kitchen before I had to watch the obvious conclusion.

A surprisingly girly shriek for a fifteen-year-old boy told me that my cousin had finally turned around. The laughter from my sister only confirmed it. I rolled my eyes as I made myself a sandwich. Nothing too fancy, just some lettuce and ham.

I thought for a before sticking my head back out into the living room.

“You guys want sandwiches?”

“Sure, Nikki.”

“Thanks, Bro, oh and put some of that spicy mustard on mine.”

I got to work on the sandwiches as Brendan joined me in the kitchen.

“So,” I said, sure about what he wanted to talk about but not sure what to say. I instead grabbed a knife and started cutting the sandwiches slowly.

“So.” He copied before following up. “Are you going to do it this year?”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “It’s not that I don’t want to, what kid doesn’t want to try the gym circuit at least once. It’s just that…”

“You’re not sure you would be able to handle a Pokémon.”

I put the knife I was using down on the plate and gripped the front of the counter.

“Other people’s Pokémon I can deal with just fine. But for some reason the idea of having one of my own freaks me out. My brain just goes wild with all the ways I could mess up. No idea why.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey don’t worry. The Professor is coming over for a bit before the big event. He’s bringing some starters with him. Those little guys are easy to train, perfect for beginners. I should know.”

That was the other thing, the thing that Brendan didn’t know about. The other reason I didn’t leave on my journey a year ago like any other kid that age.

I didn’t want to start a journey and be known as Brendan’s cousin. I knew that the second I started as a trainer I would have eyes all over me, judging me to see how I stacked up against the trainer that had brought down both Team Aqua and Magma.

I figured that waiting a year would clear things up. Give Brendan’s fame a chance to wear off. Instead, he was going around with Professor Birch, helping him host starting trainer events all over Hoenn.

Like the one that was due to happen here in Petalburg in a couple hours. All those kids waiting outside the gates would get their choice of Mudkip, Torchic or Treecko.

Honestly, I had no idea which one to pick.

On second thought, anything but torchic. I was already worried about people comparing me to my cousin, why make it worse by picking the same starter as him.

“Hey what are you guys walking bout?” I heard my sister call from the living room.

“We better get back out there, The Professor will be here soon.”

I smiled and walked out of the kitchen, plate of sandwiches in hand.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

This sucks. This grass, that tree, that berry bush. All of it sucked.

A sudden growl left me clutching my stomach in pain. I hadn’t eaten since I left home almost three days ago. Not a real meal anyway.

Half a berry that left me throwing up what little was left in my stomach didn't count. Stupid mom, always peeling the berries for us like we were babies. Not too helpful now that I had no idea what any of those edible berries looked like.

A part of me wanted to go back. To turn around and run crying back home. To run into my mother’s arms.

To have everyone laugh at me. To be told, “Of course you came back, you're just a stupid little girl can’t do anything for herself.”

I quickly dismissed that part of me. I had a plan, all I had to do was follow through on it.

I had to find a trainer. I had to get strong, strong enough to fend for myself, strong enough to prove to everyone that I wasn’t some pathetic weakling.

I clenched my tiny pale fists as I remembered all those nights of mom telling us horror stories. Of abusive trainers and miserable conditions and all the terrible things that happened when young Pokémon ran away from their parents.

And then I had actually seen one. A Trainer had passed by near our glade. Mom had told me to hide, to remain ignorant of the truth. I had tried, but I slipped and fell out of the tree I was in.

I was terrified, frozen in fear as I got myself ready to be caught in a Pokéball.

Instead, his Pokémon had made space for me near the fire and treated me to some food. It tasted amazing, better than anything I’d ever have before. By the end, I started feeling something inside of me that I had never felt before. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt nice so I didn’t say anything. Instead, I stopped eating and asked them about their trainer.

It tuned out that they had nothing but kind things to say about their trainer. They told me about how they had all grown stronger through travel with him. How they had become a sort of family through their travels.

And what travels they were. The volcano to the north, the islands chains to the east, the vast cities that the humans built. I left their campsite wanting to see them all.

And then mom had found me.

I’d seen her angry before, but never at me. I had wanted to tell her what happened, how I had gotten caught by accident. But no, I must have done it on purpose. She sent me to the small tree hallow called home without dinner. Not too much of an issue to be honest. I had already the food the trainer and his Pokémon had offered. But she didn’t know that, she didn’t care.

She never cared about us. She only kept us around because she liked having something to control.

I punched the tree next to me only to grimace in pain. Trees are hard, almost forgot about that. I looked up at the tree and frowned. I had a better way than punching. My mother was a liar and a nag but she wasn’t crazy enough to lie to me about the seven steps.

The first step, calm my emotions. I closed my eyes and focused on calming my emotions. I let my anger and rage fall away, at least for the moment.

The second step, steady my breathing. I took deep breaths, allowing myself to fall into a rhythm of in and out that matched my heartbeat.

The third step, feel the power flowing around me. As my breathing steadied I opened myself to it. A vast sea of power that engulfed the world, linking all life together. I felt it flow, cascading over my head, running down my body and coursing past my legs. Going in all direction yet maintaining itself in the same place, remaining ever-present.

The fourth step, allow the power to flow into me in controlled streams. I beckoned it to me, allowing it enter my body through my horns.

The fifth step, carefully direct the flow. Five streams flowed out from each horn. One pair to my brain, a pair to each of my eyes, and a pair to each of my hands.

The sixth step, pool the power. I fought back against the streams as they flowed through me. They wanted to burst, to overflow and flood my body. I concentrated on keeping my breathing steady as the psychic energy pooled into the three body parts I needed. My brain, to manage the flow. My eyes, to aim the flow, and finally my hands.

“I am not weak,” I muttered to myself.

My hands, for the final and seventh step. I opened my eyes, now glowing blue, and unleashed the power pooled within me all at once. I felt it like a torrent, pouring out of me in a way that almost felt painful, like my arms were about to burst open from the inside.

A wave of invisible force struck the tree, causing it to slightly rustle drop a few leaves.

I frowned, wondering what I was doing wrong. My brothers told me that they had been able to do so much more when they were my age. I was following all the steps, what was I doing wrong?

I sighed in defeat. I couldn’t even take down a single stupid tree. I took a deep breath and looked around the small area I was in. There was a bush to my right, some tall grass behind me and there was a small stream to my left. The tree itself was a normal looking tree with a few mushrooms growing from the bottom.

Something was missing. I looked around and saw a rock with a jagged edge. I grabbed it carefully and walked over to the tree. I reached up as high as I could and making sure to not cut myself, carved an X into the tree bark.

I took a step back and admired my handiwork.

I turned and kept heading north.

Or at least I was about to when I felt a sudden cramping pain in my gut. I grabbed my belly and groaned audibly. I noticed a nearby tree that had a small groove in the bark.

Seeing no reason not, too I huddled over to the tree and sat in the groove.

“Just a little while,” I said to myself in a mumbled promise before fading away to sleep.

____________________________________________________________________________________

The event was underway and I wasn’t having any of it. I just wasn’t clicking with any of these little guys. That isn’t to say that they hated me or anything, but the starters that Professor Birch had brought with him had latched themselves on the rest of the kids right from the start.

“They can tell you’re nervous,” Brendan took a seat on the park bench, right next to me. After spending twenty minutes trying to get close to a Pokémon, I had instead found myself taking a seat and watching everyone else.

They had picked a good time and place for this. A little park on the southernmost part of town that eventually blended into the woods on a bright and sunny day. A perfect and idyllic setting to think back on when you remembered getting your first Pokémon.

“Pokémon are pretty good at sensing emotion, especially those raised by humans. Everyone else is bursting with excitement and they feel that.”

“Oh, so all I have to do is not be nervous. Let me just flip the switch in my brain that lets me control my nervousness.”

Brendan sat in silence, mulling something over.

“Okay so maybe stressing you out over being less nervous is a bit counterproductive.”

“You think?” I chuckled.

“Listen, if you don’t have a Pokémon by the end of the day, maybe I can help you out.”

“I don’t know,” I said nervously, thoughts of not wanting to get stuck in Brendan’s shadow looming over me, much like said shadow I was trying to not fall under.

“Its fine, you see I…”

Whatever it was that he was about to say was cut off by a panicked cry. Brendan and I looked at each other before jumping off the bench and running towards the yelling.

We were able to pinpoint the source easy enough, a small crowd centering on a girl with a treecko riding on her head. She looked out of breath like she had just been running. Her eyes widened as she watched us approach.

As we got closer I noticed Professor Birch running towards us out of the corner of my eye.

“What happened?” Brendan asked the girl with the treecko on her head. Both she and the poor wood gecko looked deeply disturbed.

“Me and Trevor saw one of the Pokémon wander into the woods. We figured that it wouldn’t be too hard to bring it back so we went in after it. But when the torchic noticed that we were chasing it, it ran off. So we kept going until we saw something in the woods.” She began to shiver.

“What was it?” The Professor asked her, the jovial man sounding more serious then I had ever heard him sound before.

“I don’t know, all I saw was a pair of huge eyes coming from the shadows.” She clutched her arms around her body. “We ran away from it, but I think we got separated. The next thing I knew, I had made it back to the park and Trevor was gone.”

“Give me a little room please,” Brendan asked as he dug into a small pocket in his bag and took out a Pokéball. The people closest to us backed away as Brendan tossed the ball to the ground. There was a bright flash of light and his Salamence appeared. “Come here.” He beckoned the girl to get closer.

“Yes?” She said softly as she shuffled up to the older trainer and his dragon.

“What does Trevor look like?”

“He’s a little taller than me, with short brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a white shirt with blue jeans, oh and a blue hat.”

Brendan looked over to Salamence.

“You got all that?”

The dragon nodded.

“Go.” He rubbed his head before turning to the rest of us. “Clear some more space, He’s going to need a running start to take off.”

The crowd followed his directions, forming a sort of runway of clear space. Salamence backed up a bit before breaking out into a run. A few seconds late, the dragon was in the air.

“He knows how to find me if he finds Trevor. I’m heading into the woods to look for myself.”

“I’ll stay here,” Professor Birch said, “In case he makes it back by himself. If he does, I’ll contact you. I still have your nav number.”

Brendan nodded at the older man and took off into the woods. Without thinking, I ran after him.

We had just gotten out of sight of the park when he looked over his shoulder and suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?” I ask as I toss my own glance behind me.

“Why are you here?”

I snap back.

“What do you think? I’m following you.”

“Why?”

“Well, having a second pair of eyes couldn’t hurt. Also never seen a real Pokémon battle before, I figured watching you in action could help me get over my nervousness.”

He stood there for a moment, just watching me. Eventually, he nodded.

“Okay, but stick close to me. And whatever you do, do not put yourself in any danger.”

____________________________________________________________________________________

I felt something on my chest as I slept. It felt light at first like someone had just put a small rock on top of me, probably my sister. I ignored it and kept sleeping.

Then the weight began to grow. I breathed heavier as I felt it grow on top of my chest. Every time I breathed in, my chest would expand and the weight would get a little easier to bare. But when I breathed out, the weight fell on me even harder, digging into my lungs.

After a little bit, I realized that I wasn’t breathing anymore.

I woke up, scrambling to get off my back and onto my feet. I clutched my chest, the heavy feeling still there. I glanced down, trying to find whatever it was that was causing the weight.

“There’s… nothing… there.” I let out in between gasps. I looked back up, scanning the area around me for something, anything, that could be causing this.

There was something off about the woods. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was there.

“Have to think…” I said as I tried to figure out what was wrong. I thought back to what the forest looked like before I fell asleep. A thought struck me. I looked down at my hand.

Normally my hand is a grayish white. I knew this, I saw it every day, and it was always that color.

But not tonight, not right now. Now my hand was a strange slight purplish hue to its color. The same purplish hue that I know realized that painted everything around me.

I looked around, searching for any spot where the purple wasn't as strong. I almost gave up when I saw it, a tree off in the distance that wasn't purple.

I urged my legs to move, pain firing through almost my entire body. I tried to ignore the burning pain, instead focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

Step.

Step.

Step.

With every step forward, I felt the pain in my lungs subside even as the pain in my legs and stomach grew. I had to keep moving. Even if the pain made the tears flow from my eyes, even if it got so unbearable that I wanted to give up and collapse. I had to for one reason.

This pain in my legs, I knew it would pass. I would get away from this purple hue, and be able to rest again.

But the pain in my lungs would not pass. It would stay until it got too much and I wouldn't be able to breathe.

I wasn't about to drown in the middle of the woods with no water in sight.

I was halfway there, the pain in my lung almost bearable now. I was so close. I knew I couldn't stop. But I wanted to so badly. I wanted to stop now, to tell myself that I was far away enough.

I knew I wasn't. Instead, I thought back to that night. To all those places that those trained Pokémon had told me about. About the town above the sea, the volcano to the north, the great desert, Meteor Falls, the town inside the volcano. I wanted to see them all.

And I couldn't see any of them if I died right here. So I kept going.

I thought back to my Mother. About how weak she thought I was, how useless she thought I was. If I died so soon after leaving home, she would find me. She would find my cold corpse and laugh.

I would come back, I would come back and show them all. I would be powerful, unstoppable, and no one would ever treat me like a useless child ever again.

I passed the tree and the pain in my lungs went away altogether. I calmed myself, taking deep breaths to get the purple air out of my lungs. I breathed in and out, letting it all filter out.

I let out a smile as I felt the empty feeling inside before collapsing.

____________________________________________________________________________________

We’d been going at a brisk pace through the woods for a while now. Part of me wanted to ask Brendan about the way we were searching, but I found myself too nervous to ask him.

Instead, I thought of the Pokémon that I knew Brendan had and what he could possibly have on him. I already knew that he had his Salamence scouting the woods from above. I would be shocked if he didn’t have his starting Blaziken with him, but it made sense to keep him close. Milotic wouldn’t be that useful for searching the woods. Grumpig was strong, but not fast enough to search the woods like Salamence.

The rest of his team fluctuated enough that I had no clue what could be in his last two slots.

In short, if he had any Pokémon on him that could have made the search easier, then he would have used them by now.

I grimaced, the forest was huge and stretched to the coast. With such a large search area, finding a single person and Pokémon was going to be next to impossible.

The best we could hope for would be for Brendan’s Salamence to find the kid.

The almost inaudible sound of someone calling for help off in the distance behind me told me otherwise. I narrowed my eyes and debated just leaving him to his doom.

Of course, that would be wrong, for many reasons.

“Brendan,” I told him as I stopped running. He turned around, looking impatient. “I think I heard something behind us, it might be the person we’re looking for.”

“Lead the way.” He said seriously.

We only just started heading back when I heard the voice again. It was definitely someone calling for help.

“You hear it this time?” I asked Brendan who just nodded.

We reached a small, empty clearing about a minute later.

“Where is he?” I asked aloud as we looked around the clearing.

“Up here.”

We both looked up. Up in one of the trees circling the clearing was the kid we had been searching for. Cradled in his arms was the missing Pokémon, cooing and looking at us with what looked like relief.

“What are you doing up there?” Brendan asked the question that I also wanted answered.

“I’m hiding.”

“From what?” I asked him this time, hoping that he would give an actual answer this time.

“I don’t know. But there was something in the woods, something dangerous.”

So much for an actual answer.

“Well, you’re safe now,” I call out. “I doubt anything in these woods is strong enough to take on a champion level trainer.”

“I guess.” He answered back as he started shuffling around on the branch. He carefully placed Torchic on his back so that the pokémon could grab on as he climbed down. It was a slow, but not overly slow process, watching the kid get down from the tree.

Now that I had a good look at him, he didn’t seem worse for wear. A few scuff marks but aside from that he was fine.

“Let’s head back to the park,” Brendan told him as he dusted off the little bit of dirt on him.

As we walked back in silence, I heard something off in the distance. It sounded a little like someone crying.

“Wait a second, I hear something,” I told the other two. “Someone else might have wandered in from town.”

Brendan nodded and followed me, a pokéball in his hand.

After a few moments, the forest parted away to reveal a small white figure laying on the ground. I heard the same crying sound come from it and I ran over. I knelt over the poor thing, putting one of my hands on the ground next to it.

“It’s a Ralts,” Brendan commented. “A tiny one too, even by their standards. It must be young.”

“Should we take them back with us?” I grimaced as Brendan shook his head.

“If it’s this young then their Mother should be close by. Getting between a fully grown Gardevoir and her child would be extremely dangerous.”

As he said that, I felt someone tugging on my hand. I looked down and saw the ralts pulling themselves up using my arm. It looked up, giving me a look of adoration. I saw small tears forming in corner of their eyes. It let out a squeal and hugged my arm, letting out a sound that might have been laughter.

“I think it likes me,” I said in disbelief.

“Well, that’s, a thing. Well even if it likes you it’s still way too young for capture.”

“By how much?” I asked as I rubbed the top of the Pokémon’s head with my finger.

“No idea, we’d have to ask the Professor when we get back.”

“Um, guys?” The two of us turned around. The kid and torchic were turned away from us, looking at something in the woods. “It’s back.”

Brendan, the ralts and I all froze in place as a feeling of dread washed over me. Like I was about to die. I grasped for my throat, trying to get off whatever it was that was strangling me. When I felt nothing there, I looked down at the ralts.

The poor thing was shivering and holding on tight to my arm. Despite my better judgment, I decided to ignore Brendan. I scooped the ralts up and cradled it in my arms, it felt too cruel to do otherwise. As soon as settled in it poked its head out to watch the trees.

If Brendan wanted to say something, he didn’t get the chance. As soon as the feeling of dread passed, a trio of flying things came bursting out of the trees towards us. The three pokémon buzzed in the air as they came right at us. It had a white body with two sets of buzzing orange wings. For some reason, I found myself unable to remember what they were called. The ralts squeaked and ducked down into my arms.

“Wild Masquerain, well that explains some of it,” Brendan muttered as he grabbed a pokéball and threw to the ground. His Blaziken burst out in a flash of light. He narrowed his eyes as he watched the three Pokémon flying towards us. “Nikki, Trevor, when you get the chance, run for it. I’ll hold them back. If you feel that dread again, ignore it.” Brendan told us as his Blaziken raised his leg up and his foot burst into flames. It kicked through the air, making a wall of flames between us and the Masquerain.

“What do you mean ignore it?” I said as I tracked the Masquerain beyond the flames. One of them had stayed in place while the other two had split off in opposite directions to circle around us.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Well, on one hand, I had found a trainer. On the other hand, I was pretty sure I was about to die.

Mom’s nagging tended to be about whatever was annoying her at the moment plus a few staples. One such staple was a warning to not stray too far from the clearing or I would get eaten by the flutterers. I figured that she was lying about that like she lied about everything else. Instead there three of the things flying towards us. I knew the way it worked, Pokémon protected trainers. There was no way I would be able to hold them back.

As I nestled in the trainer’s arms, I realized that my only hope of escape would be for the trainer to save me.

So in short, I was as good as doomed. Who would want a Pokémon too weak to protect their own trainer? Once the trainer realized that he had a useless pokémon in its arms, it would portably leave me and run for it. Not that I blamed him.

“I did turn out to be a useless little girl in the end,” I muttered to myself as I waited for the end. Instead, I felt a bright flash of white light. I opened my eyes to the sight of flames.

They stood tall and proud, a trainer and his pokémon, the dream that I wanted. There it was, in all of its glory. I could barely hear them over the roar of the flames but I saw the trainer’s mouth move and the pokémon move into action. My eyes could barely keep track of him as he almost vanished.

The taller trainer told the trainer holding me something that I couldn’t understand. He nodded and took off running along with the third trainer.

Being carried felt weird, but I was too exhausted to care. I felt myself drifting to and away from sleep for a while, but I forced myself to stay awake. The trainer was probably not impressed with me, the last thing I wanted to do was pass out on him.

Which helped when he suddenly stopped in place. I turned to see what it was that stopped us. As soon as I did, passing out stopped being my main concern.

A fourth flutterer right in front of us. It glowed purple and beat its wings towards us. Once again the world became purple. For some reason, it wasn’t as bad this time. I only felt a tightish squeeze around my body and neck instead of the overwhelming weight of before. However, I still reached up to instinctively claw at whatever it was that was around my neck.

The fact that I knew that there was nothing there didn’t stop me.

The trainer ran from it for some reason. Why didn’t he just take out one of his other pokémon? Especially since the flutterer decided to chase us, keeping us within the purple as we ran.

The trainer looked down and said something to me that I couldn’t make out. It sounded nice though. Maybe making it this long had impressed him?

The thought gave me strength. I focused on my breathing, trying to calm myself down. I had to make a good showing here.

But it was hard, the flutterer kept chasing us, not giving up. The other trainer who was running with us yelled something and we stopped again. I wondered what had happened when I suddenly went flying.

I landed on a soft patch of grass and looked over at the trainer. My first instinct was that he had made his choice and had decided to drop me. However, instead of seeing the trainer standing over me with a disappointed glare, he had apparently also been knocked down to the ground. Hovering over him was another flutterer that was quickly joined by the one that had been chasing us.

I turned around and saw that the other trainer that had been with us was running away with his pokémon. I growled at him, leaving me behind was one thing but leaving your friend behind was something else.

“Coward,” I yelled at him before realizing that there were still two flutterers behind me. I clapped my mouth closed and slowly turned around.

Maybe I had gotten lucky and they hadn’t heard me.

The two flutterers staring at me before suddenly hovering over to me told me that my luck sucked.

The droning sound of their wings buzzed in my ears as they hovered above me, their beady eyes drilling into me. The one that had charged the trainer started to glow purple as well.

I felt a familiar feeling as both purple waves washed over me. The strangling feeling was back, made worse by the knowledge that the ones doing it were right in front of me.

A loud yell distracted the flutterers as they both stopped to watch the trainer come running at them. It swung one of its arms at them.

Was… was he trying to get them away for me? Why? Why would he do that?

My questioning was cut short as the flutterers just decided to dart out of his reach. I hoped for a second that they would just go away. Instead, they both glowed purple and I watched in horror as waves of purple engulfed the trainer.

He was forced to the ground, down on all fours. I could see him clench his fists as he gripped the ground. I watched as he tried and failed to get up, to get to his feet, only to collapse completely.

I… I had to do something.

At that moment, I knew what I had to do.

The first step, calm my emotions. The tears in my eyes and the rage in my heart told me that there was no way I was getting this step done. Skipped.

The second step, steady my breathing. I could feel the pounding in my chest. The non-stop throbbing told me that this wasn’t happening. Skipped.

The third step, feel the power flowing around me. I gasped as I felt the sea. Unlike the calm ever-present sea from before, the sea was choppy, a stormy sea that almost overwhelmed me.

The fourth step, allow the power to flow into me in controlled streams. If I could have laughed, I would have laughed at the word controlled. I opened my horns to the power, allowing it to flow freely as much as possible.

The fifth step, carefully direct the flow. I felt the power rage inside me. I could barely shape it, let alone direct it.

The sixth step, pool the power. I didn’t bother. I had so much power coursing through me that putting more in any particular spot would have been meaningless.

“Get…” I held my arms out at the flutterers. “Away from him!”

Step seven, unleash the psychic might. A bright green wave of psychic power barreled towards one of the flutterers sending one flying and to the ground. Before I had a chance to catch my breath, the other one came at me, an angry look in its eyes.

“Go away,” I said as I crossed my arms in front of me and pushed outwards.

A green pulse flew out of me, impacting the flutterer just as it was about to hit me. It went flying just like its friend.

The trainer got up, catching his breath. It said something as it looked at the flutterers on the ground. It sounded stunned, and maybe, hopefully, impressed.

“I… did…it,” I said in-between exhausted pants. I let out a wheezing laugh as I collapsed.

____________________________________________________________________________________

I unfroze as the Ralts fell to the ground.

“Hey, you okay?’ I asked as I scooped them up in my hands. I grimaced, the little thing was out cold. My worry was lessened a bit by the goofy grin the ralts had on their face.

I heard a rustling sound come from the woods. I looked up and held the Ralts closer up to me in case I needed to run. I let out a breath that I hadn’t even noticed that I had been holding as I saw Brendan emerge from the woods with his Blaziken and Grumpig.

“Nikki are you okay? I rushed over here as soon as soon as I heard that you didn’t make it back to the park.”

“So Trevor’s okay then?” I asked as I suddenly felt weak in the knees. I apparently showed it because Blaziken was by my side in an instant. The fire type caught me before I had a chance to fall.

Grumpig walked up to me and held out her hands. It gave a demanding squeal, signaling that she was going to be holding onto the Ralts from now on. Knowing the motherly pokémon from reputation, I didn’t put up a fight as I carefully handed the little one over.

“Let’s head back.” I tried to walk, my legs shaking with each short step. I barely made it five steps when I almost feel again. Once again Blaziken caught me before I hit the ground.

“Maybe you should let us help you,” Brendan suggested as Blaziken helped me walk. I opened my mouth to insist that I was fine when he cut me off. “Most humans aren’t really built to take pokémon attacks, let alone one as potentially debilitating as ominous wind. And you didn’t take just one. You took multiple, overlapping ominous winds. Anyone would be out of it after something like that.”

Realizing that I wasn’t getting out of this, I let go of my pride and let everyone help me back to town. By the time we got to the park, Ali and my parents were speaking to Prof Birch. By the looks of it, we had made just in time to save the poor man.

We walked over to the group when we were suddenly ambushed by a worried looking Trevor, an equally worried looking Torchic in his arms.

“You made it! I was super worried.” He almost yelled as he looked at me. “What happened? I thought you were right behind me?”

A sudden thought occurred to me.

“Did… did you not notice the fifth Masquerain knocking me to the ground. Because that was a thing that happened. Well unless the fifth one was actually one of the three that Brendan held back then I suppose there would have just been four.”

“You’re rambling,” Brendan said. “You need to get some…”

“Nicholas!” A sudden yell interrupted us as we looked over at the group that was running towards us. Blaziken let me go as I was swept up in a tight hug by my mother.

“Careful Aunt Carol,” Brendan told my Mother. “Let him breathe.”

“What happened?” My father asked.

“Actually, I have to talk to Prof Birch about that.”

“Let’s head back to the house.” The Professor said before noticing the Ralts in Grumpig’s arms. “Who’s this?”

“Well, you see… Nikki!”

That was weird, why was Brendan yelling my name in a panic. Also, why was the world at the angle? And why was the ground suddenly so close and oh I’m passing out.

That explains everything.

____________________________________________________________________________________

The throbbing pain in my head told me that I was awake. I was also somewhere soft, softer than anywhere I had ever felt in my life. I groaned as I rolled onto my stomach. I pushed myself up to a sitting position. I opened my eyes and found myself in a place the likes of which I had never seen before.

I wasn’t sure how I would describe it. There were a bunch of weird straight lines everywhere. Everywhere I looked, I saw colors. Most of it was a dull brown that looked like wood all over the room. But aside from that, there were several, small brightly colored objects scattered all over the place. I glanced down and saw that I was sitting on some sort of weird green thing. I pushed it a little and noticed that it sank a little.

“Looks like you woke up.” I jumped as a purple figure suddenly appeared in front of me. She was holding a bright, flat shiny object with a few things on top of it. She put the object down on the platform in front of me. One of them appeared to contain a yellowish brown water. It smelled amazing.

“What is that?” I pointed at the stuff.

“Food,” She answered sternly as she got something else from the flat object, some sort of shiny stick. She put it in the food and it began to pool inside of it. “Open your mouth.”

The food tasted as good as it smelt. It had a deep, tangy flavor that I didn’t recognize. There were also small bits of berries in the food, none of which I recognized.

“Okay, I think you’ve had enough.” The figure said.

“Thank you, that’s the first thing I’ve eaten in days.”

“Days? That explains a few things.” She frowned. “My name is.” I suddenly felt a comforting warmth through my body as the mental image of a smooth rock laying in the summer sun appeared in my head. “But my non-psychic friends just call me warmth. What’s your name sweetie?”

“Oh, I’m.” I sent her my own name, a small brook running along the bottom of a small cliff in the middle of the woods. “I don’t really have a spoken name. I’ve never talked to anyone outside of my family until now.”

“I see.” She looked worried for some reason. “How about Brook as a name? A pretty name for a pretty little ralts?”

Brook? For a spoken name? I guess that worked. It was my name anyway, might as well use it. Not like I was going to use it often. How likely was I to encounter non-psychics anyway?

“I like it,” I said with a nod. My stomach rumbled again, reminding me just how long I’d gone without a good meal before now. “Can I have some more food, please? I want to feel that feeling again.”

“What feeling.”

I told her about my encounter with a trainer in the woods and finished by sharing with her my memories of that feeling.

She smiled sadly.

“Sure thing, just two things first though.”

“What are they?”

“Just two questions, nothing too hard.”

“Okay.”

“How much does your family normally feed you?”

“Well, I usually get a few peeled berries a day. Mom always peels them for me even when I ask her not to so I don’t really know what kind they are.”

“How much is a few?”

“Maybe three, sometimes four if I’m lucky. My brothers and mom get way more food though. They say it’s because they're bigger so they have to eat more.”

“Okay so my second question, how old are you?”

I told her my age and she smiled sadly again. She rubbed the top of my head.

“You did perfectly.” She told me before going back to feeding me.

I ate until I felt that feeling again.

“It feels good right?” Warmth asked me.

“Yeah it does, what’s this feeling called anyway?”

“It’s called feeling full Brook.”

“Full? I guess I am full of food.” I smiled.

“Do you mind if I ask you another question?”

“It’s fine.”

“Why were you all on your own?”

“Well remember that team that I told you about. Well after hearing about the…” So I told her everything, my whole story. The days of wandering, my dream to become strong, and then meeting up with the flutterers and the trainers.

“Oh, the Trainer is he okay!” I had completely forgotten about him. Hopefully, he was okay.

“He’s fine, he just woke up a little while ago.” Warmth told me as she gently pushed me back a bit. I had apparently been leaning forward. “And he’s not a trainer, not yet.”

“What do you mean ‘not yet’? How is he not a trainer? Not only was he super brave when he saved me, he also looked like the trainer I met that night?”

Warmth gave me a look that I didn’t really know.

“Do you think that trainer is the name of their species?”

“Is it not?”

“No, the word trainer only refers to those who catch and train pokémon. The name of the species is ‘human’.”

“Oh.”

“Yes oh. So you were planning on asking him to take you on as one of his pokémon?”

“Of course, how else will I get stronger?”

“I think you should start worrying about learning better control before starting on more raw power. I saw what you did to those Masquerain, and to your arms.” Her face shifted and her tone became tense. “Just what were you thinking, using your power so dangerously?”

“The trainer, well Human I guess, was in danger. I didn’t have time to go through the seven steps so I just skipped some of them.”

She looked confused.

“Seven steps?”

“Yeah, the seven steps that psychic pokémon have to follow to use their power.”

“Sweetie I’m psychic and I’ve never heard of these seven steps. Maybe you could explain it to me?”

So I told her about the seven steps I usually took, and how I did things when the flutterers were about to attack the Human.

After I finished she told me to wait there for a little bit while she went to go deal with something.

____________________________________________________________________________________

“We might need Norman’s help for this. Masquerain acting in groups like that, using advanced tactics, this is not natural.” Professor Birch said as I nursed the mother of all headaches. “Especially for a pokémon as peaceful as Masquerain.”

“So what, we just declare that area off limits?” Brendan asked as he leaned on the wall.

“For now,” The professor said with a pained look on his face. “However we still have to give this Ralts back to her family.”

I let out a sigh, I was going to miss the little Ralts.

The sound of a door slamming open caused everyone in the room to jump a bit. We all turned and saw Brendan’s Grumpig looking furious.

“What’s wrong Warmth?” Brendan said as he raised his arms out in an attempt to calm his pokémon. His Grumpig glared at him before her pearls started to glow.

“Oh,” He said sounding intrigued.

“Oh,” Now he sounded worried.

“Oh,” Now he sounded like he just understood something that he really didn’t want to learn. He turned to the rest of us who were waiting for an explanation.

“We’re not giving the Ralts back to its mother.”

“What possible reason could we have for separating a baby pokémon from its mother? Especially one from a family oriented line like Ralts?”

“You mean besides the fact that this Gardevoir was apparently trying to get her daughter killed on purpose? Probably the fact that it’s not actually a baby pokémon, it’s just tiny from being underfed.”

He looked right at me. “Also, she wants you to train her.”

“She, she wants me?” I pointed at myself.

“Looks like you impressed her.”

Grumpig motioned for me to follow her, and not wanting to annoy her, I followed. She led me to the room where we had set the Ralts to rest.

Said Ralts jumped when we entered the room. When she saw that it was us, she gave that goofy looking grin from before and shuffled to the edge of the sofa she was on. I rushed up and caught her before she could fall off the edge.

“Hey there,” I told her “So you want to be my pokémon then?”

She looked confused for a moment before Grumpig cut in and said something. The Ralts’s eyes widened in what was probably understanding before beaming at me and aggressively nodding her head.

“Okay then, my names Nicholas, but apparently people keep calling me Nikki no matter what I do.”

Grumpig translated again and the Ralts smiled. She closed her eyes and I suddenly got a vision of a small brook running next to a cliff bottom.

“Is that your name?” I asked, remembering some trivia about psychic type names that I read somewhere. The ralts nodded again.

“Well, then it’s nice to meet you Brook,” I said as I held out my hand.

The Ralts laughed and hugged it.

And like that, I had my first pokémon.


	2. A rocketing start to an adventure/journey

The ten days after becoming partners with Nikki had been slow. At first most of my time was spent recovering from both my trip and my mother. But after I got back to my feet, I found myself being taught by Warmth. Most of it was basic information about humans that any human raised pokémon would know. She had also taught me the right way to use my physic powers properly because apparently, my Mother had taught me wrong on purpose.

Still wasn't sure how to feel about that.

On one hand, it made perfect sense, it explained why mother and my brothers were all so much more powerful than me. The problem wasn't with me, it was with the way Mother taught me.

But on the other hand, the only reason for Mother to teach me the way she did was if she was trying to either cripple or kill me. As it turned out, allowing the power to flood into me and fill me up was what I was supposed to do. Trying to control the flow and let it in as tiny streams was extremely dangerous. Trying to direct the flow within me had only made the problem worse.

According to Warmth, if I had kept doing things the way Mother taught me, one of two things could have happened.

Either the strain would have eventually gotten too bad and cause unhealable damage to my horns leaving me with no psychic powers, or it would have killed me.

Back when Mother had taught me how to use my psychic powers, she always had this little smile as I recited the seven steps. I thought that maybe she was finally finding a reason to be proud of me. Instead, it looks like she was smiling because her plan to hurt me was going well.

Well, none of that mattered anymore. I was free from here and had bigger things to deal with. For example, the Grumpig standing across the orange-colored field of grass.

“You two ready?” Brendan asked standing behind Warmth, the glow of the setting sun on his face.

“Yeah, we are,” Nikki said as I nodded.

“This is a practice battle between Brendan and his Grumpig versus Nikki and his Ralts,” Nikki’s sister Aliana said with one hand in the air. “Begin!”

“We’ll let you guys have the first shot.” Brendan crossed his arms.

“Show me what you’ve learned sweetie.” Warmth said giving ‘a bring it on’ gesture.

“Brook, use confusion.”

I closed my eyes, if only for a moment.

My heartbeat and breathing slowed. At the very least, Mother taught me this part right. I really did need a calm mind and steady breathing to access the psychic power flowing around me. Without the calm, the power would overwhelm me like it almost did that day I met Nikki.

I decided not to think about it and instead open myself up. The human place, this… city. It felt different from the forest. In the forest, the power swarmed all around me with seemingly no structure. However, after a while, patterns began to appear. Order hidden among chaos. Here the power flowed through neat straight lines, forming endless rows of neat boxes.

But within those neat tidy boxes were an overwhelming torrent of power, swirling and crashing, trying and failing to escape the confines of the boxes. This was absolute chaos hidden within order.

I opened the floodgates all the way and let the power deluge within me. The power filled me to the brim. From my earlier practice, I knew that I was now glowing green with power.

I opened my eyes, the moment I needed to activate my power now past. I thrust my arm out as the power burst out in a blast of psychic power that tinted the air green as it flew through the sky.

Warmth smiled as the blast passed over here, doing no visible damage.

“Nice try Sweetie. Want to try that again.”

My eyes narrowed.

“Let’s try that again Brook,” Nikki shouted and I was more than happy to comply.

I shot my arms out and let out another two blasts, one from each arm. I hesitated on the second one, taking a moment to aim it slightly higher. The first one hit Warmth who took it like a stiff breeze. She barely moved as the blast hit her stomach. She smiled just as the second blast hit her straight in the face.

She stumbled back for a moment before regaining her balance. Her eyes narrowed.

“Looks like we're getting somewhere,” Nikki said as I gave a small cheer.

“Alright let’s kick thing up a notch then,” Brendan said with a proud smile. “Warmth, give them a double team.”

I watched as Warmth multiplied before my eyes. Five Warmths took a step forward and advanced on me. I looked back at Nikki, hoping that he had a plan.

He was looking at the ground in front of the Warmths intently.

“Brook,” Here it comes, please have a good plan. “Blast the ground under the center Warmth with confusion.”

What? How was that useful? I shot him a questioning look.

He just smiled.

“Trust me.” He said, the words ringing in my head. Those were the words, back in the forest. When we had been chased by that Masquerain.

He held me in his arms as the purple surrounded us. He looked down and said the words that I know recognized.

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll make it out of this just fine. Trust me.”

And just like that, I was aiming a confusion at the ground beneath the center Warmth.

The blast sailed through the air and impacted hard, not doing any damage to our practice enemy. In fact, all it did was kick dust up everywhere. I saw Warmth narrow her eyes and just barely heard her say “clever” before she was engulfed in the dust.

I let out a small cough and waved the dust away as it drifted towards me. It wasn't enough and I had to then close my eyes and look away as I took a step back.

I opened my eyes and saw the five Warmths still all advancing.

“I see.” I heard Nikki mutter behind me. I looked at the line of Warmths trying to figure out what he saw. As far as I could see, all I had done was make everything dusty.

“Ha-ha, nice one Nikki.” Brendan's laugh confused me even further. What had I done exactly, and why was it a nice?

Instead of giving a clarification Nikki just gave me another command.

“Brook hit the fourth Warmth with a confusion. Give it everything you had.”

I decided to trust him on this. I took aim and reached in deep. I let out a roar, or at least the closest I could to a roar, and punched the air, a blast of psychic energy exploding outwards.

I leaned over, panting hard. I made a moment to work on my stamina and looked up to watch the impact.

With the odds against me, I had expected the blast to cruise right through the Warmth I had targeted. To my surprise, the five Warmths crossed their arms in unison. The blast hit Warmth, pushing her back and causing the four other Warmths to disappear.

“How?” I almost screamed.

“Using the dust kicked up by confusion to figure out which was the real Warmth, impressive.” Brendan beamed with pride.

“Not that hard when the dust is moving through all but one of them.”

I suddenly felt really dumb. Especially since by the sound of it, I was the only one that hadn't figured it out.

“Alright so looks like you guys have a decent offense going. Let’s see how well you do on defense.” Brendan gave the two of us a smile that was somehow both the friendliest and most terrifying smile I had ever seen. “Warmth start them off with a Psybeam.”

Warmth’s forehead pearls glowed and a small ball of blue and purple energy appeared between them. The ball grew to a size that matched her forehead pearls before a beam shot out straight at me.

“Brook, dodge!”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I ducked, tucking my head into me just in time for the beam to fly over my head.

“Warmth keep it up.” I looked up and saw the Warmth reading another beam, this one aimed just a bit lower.

“Brook, hop to the left.”

I jumped, once again narrowly dodging the beam.

“Quick jump again!”

I looked up and saw Warmth firing another beam. I leaped to the right to get out of the way.

I landed on the ground and quickly got up, realizing that she was speeding up. The time between shots was decreasing. I had to keep up.

“Jump.”

I followed Nikki’s cue and jumped straight up as the next beam exploded right below my feet. I felt myself grin. Who could blame me, I was doing amazingly. I was already so much better than I had been ten days ago.

Brook,” Nikki’s cry snapped me out of it just in time to notice the beam coming straight at me. I was still in midair, I couldn’t do anything to dodge. I got ready to tuck in and take the hit. “Quick shoot a confusion to your right, strong as you can.”

I lashed my arms out and unleashed another strong blast of psychic power. The shockwave from the attack actually pushed me back enough to get me out of the way of the Psybeam.

“Well, that’s a new one.” I heard Brendan comment as I picked myself off the floor. Using my power like that was a neat trick but I would have to work on the landing.

“Alright, so one last thing,” Brendan said as he crossed his arms.

“Brook you ready?”

I nodded at Nikki.

“Warmth, use zen headbutt.” The small orb that had been shooting psybeams at me expanded into a half sphere helmet around Warmth’s head. She moved back and then sprung forward.

“Brook, burst, now!”

I took in a quick breath hand dug deep within me. I found it quickly, the well within the well.

Burst wasn’t a real move, not really. Although it might be the start of one. Over the course of learning how to use my power, we had discovered a wellspring of power within me. A more direct, more brutal power. If normal psychic energy was like free-flowing water, then this power was like syrup.

Every time I had tried to use it, I had failed to do so. When I tried to pool the power inside of me, I lost control. The power exploded out from me, knocking both Nikki and Warmth back during practice.

Maybe one day I would figure out how to use this power correctly. For now, though, the ability to create a blast of psychic energy that blew back everything around me had its uses.

Warmth got a little too close as I felt myself reach the limit of how much of the other power I could handle. Just before Warmth could land her hit I let out a cry and unleashed it.

A wave of green exploded out of me in every direction. The wave dissipated after only a second. Burst was useless out of insanely close range. Anyone more than half a meter away would be unaffected.

Warmth was much closer than that.

My mentor was sent flying away from me at a speed that almost worried me for a second. I worried even more when I saw that Brendan was right in her flight path.

“Brendan look,” Nikki’s warning was of no use. Warmth crashed into her trainer and both went to the ground. “Out.” Nikki squeaked out as Aliana left her spot to go check on her cousin. Nikki on the other hand alternated between looking at me and our collapsed opponents.

I gave him a thumbs up to show that I was okay. He was probably worried since the last time we had tried burst, I had passed out afterword. I started making my way to Warmth and Brendan to see if they were alright and why were my legs suddenly numb.

I fell flat on my face and I heard the pounding of feet approach me. I pouted as Nikki scooped me up in his arms.

“You all right?”

I gave him another thumbs up. My body might be a bit numb but I hadn’t passed out that time. I called that an improvement.

He opened his mouth to say something else when he was interrupted by the sound of clapping. We both glanced over and saw both Brendan and Warmth giving us a round of applause.

“Congratulations.” They both said.

Nikki and I locked eyes and gave each other manic grins.

We had passed their test which meant one thing.

Tomorrow, our adventure would truly begin.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So Nicholas, you have a route planned out yet?” My dad asked me over dinner. The four of us had sat down to enjoy one last meal as a family for a while before I set off on my journey. Brendan had joined us too, wanting to give me a bit more advice and see me off. He had important business with his Dad and the Professor early in the morning and would be gone by the time I got up.

Brook, Kiki, and Warmth ate at a lower table of to the side, talking about, whatever it was that pokémon talked about.

“Well, I was thinking of heading to Dewford first. Rustboro after that maybe.”

“So the opposite of what I did then?” Brendan said as he took as he served himself. “Any particular reason for the route?”

‘Because it’s the opposite of what you did.’ I fought to keep myself from saying that. “I have a type advantage against Brawly. From what I’ve heard about him, he doesn’t sound like the kind of person to counteract a type advantage in someone’s first gym battle.”

“Well you’re not wrong,” He mumbled loudly and got a distant look in his eyes.

“Yeah…” I continued after a few seconds. “Plus I want to try to fight Roxanne once I have a bit more experience under my belt, but I don’t want to hold off too long. Don’t want to end up like one of those people who end up fighting her last.”

While the Hoenn League did let you take on the gym leaders in any order, certain rules of thumb did tend to crop up. Don’t fight Either Roxanne or Uncle Norman last because they’re terrifying. Flannery tends to go a little easier on new trainers. Don’t fight Winona third because her Skarmory would tear you apart. Those kinds of things.

“Just… be prepared,” Brendan warned. “Brawly is a, well he’s an intense person.”

“Changing the subject,” My mom interrupted. “Nicholas, you’re all packed right?”

“Got everything ready this morning before heading off to fight Brendan,” I admitted.

“Wow, someone was feeling confident.” Ali snickered. Kiki floated behind her and copied her trainer. I felt a little bad for Brendan. The rest of us had long gotten used to my sister and her pokémon doing their creepy little laugh in stereo.

The rest of dinner passed without much of note. I got a few more questions about my journey and a few pieces of advice that I had a feeling were going to come in handy.

Finally, Brook and I went up the stairs and retreated to my room for the night. I climbed into bed and Brook did likewise in the small bed we had placed for her in the corner of the room.

Twenty minutes later and I was still awake. I couldn't sleep. I was too hyped to start my adventure that the only thing I had done since going to bed was toss and turn.

I let out a sigh and tried to close my eyes again when I saw a green glow out of the corner of my eye.

I was facing the wall next to my bed so the most obvious object for Brook to messing with would be the door.

The sound of the handle turning confirmed it for me. I waited for Brook to leave the room and got out of bed as quietly as possible, grabbing the small box on top of my desk on the way.

Brook didn't notice my presence as I followed her through the house.

Finally, she reached her destination, the attic. She deactivated her powers and enveloped the latch with a green glow. The panel slowly opened, lowering the ladder.

Brook walked up to the ladder and I was honestly expecting her to give up here. Instead, she took a deep breath and got to climbing.

A dark thought appeared in my head and I got ready to jump out and catch a falling Brook if need be. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do anything like that. Brook managed to climb her way up to the attic without incident. I smiled as I got out of my hiding spot and followed after her.

The attic was sparse, a side effect of having a family that doesn't really collect anything. The lack of clutter meant that I could easily keep track of Brook in spite of her small size. She wandered around a bit, her short stature causing the few items around her to tower over her.

After about a minute, she reached what I guessed was her destination. She opened the door to the balcony and went through.

She reached the edge of the balcony and just sat down. I noted that she was starring off in the direction of where we had met. I stepped out and picked her up.

“Can’t sleep?” I asked Brook who just let out a calm sigh before shaking her head. “Yeah me neither.” I set Brook down on a small table that we kept out here.

I pulled out one of the chairs for myself and set the box down on the other. I took a seat and we both looked out over the city.

“Never left home before, you got any tips for me.” I finally said.

Brook pouted and a mental image of generic looking food in backpack appeared in my head.

“Brook travel tip number one, bring food?”

Brook nodded sagely before letting out a laugh. I couldn’t help but join in. We let the laughter subside and went back to looking over Petalburg.

“You left home because you wanted to get stronger right?”

Brook nodded more seriously this time. She looked at me the way she usually did when she about to send me a mental image. I got ready to see what she wanted me to see, only to see nothing.

“Something wrong?” Brook grumbled nervously. A picture of me laughing with a large red X over it appeared in my head. “I promise not to laugh,” I said, hoping that I was getting what she meant.

She let out a breath and a mental image appeared in my head again. This time though, something was different. A lone pokémon, a Gardevoir, stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking some mountains in the dead of night. The scene wasn’t still, the leaves and the Gardevoir’s skirt were fluttering in the wind. I watched as the Gardevoir took a step out from the cliff and began to fall.

I rushed over to the cliff edge in concern. I quickly saw that it wasn’t needed, the Pokémon was slowing her descent down. She reached a complete stop before dashing through the air and landing on the mountain. Her impact shattered the rock face and sent stones everywhere. Other pokémon appeared surrounding her. A mixture of poison, ghost and steel pokémon that blocked out all routes of escape for the Gardevoir.

She moved, and I saw that trying to cut off her escape had been the wrong move. Blasts of psychic energy erupted from her, tearing their way through the crowd. She demolished them, reducing their number until only a few remained.

She jumped in the air and the clouds parted revealing a full moon. The Gardevoir glowed with a pale energy the same shade as moonlight. After a few seconds she let out a cry and a torrent of power erupted from her. I covered my eyes as I felt the wind from the blast sweep over me. When I could see again, I saw that the blast had only taken out her foes, it had also gotten rid of most of the mountain.

As the Gardevoir landed on what was left of the mountain, I knew who I was looking at.

It was Brook in her idealized state, the dream she wanted to reach one day. Off in the distance, I watched the strongest pokémon in the world bask in her triumph.

I was pulled out of the image to the sight of Brook fidgeting nervously.

“That’s your dream? The world’s strongest?”

She nodded.

I fought the urge to laugh, not because the dream was too much. No, I had to stop from laughing because.

“You know it’s usually the pokémon that help the trainer reach their dream, not the other way around.” She rubbed the back of her head and chuckled nervously. “Well, to be honest, I don’t really have a dream. I’m just going on this journey because, well, it’s what people do. See the world a bit, catch some pokémon, and win at least two badges, everyone does that. But be the trainer of the world’s strongest pokémon,” I paused as Brook looked up at me with her eyes wide.

“How can I say no?”

Brook let out a cheer and hugged me the best she could.

“Hey let go for a second, I have something to give you.”

Brook took a while but finally relented, allowing me to pick up the box.

“I got this for you a few days ago to celebrate us starting our journey,” I said as I unwrapped the present. “I figured that this was as good a time as ever to give it to you.”

Slowly, I presented Brook with her gift, a dark green bandana the same color as her psychic energy. She looked mystified.

“Like it?” She broke out of her stupor and nodded wildly.

I folded the cloth into a triangle and tied the two ends around her neck. She laughed as she touched the soft material.

“Glad you like it,” I said as I sat back down and looked out over the city again. Brook waddled closer to me and joined me.

Tomorrow… Tomorrow our journey really started.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
“Good morning Brook. Let me help you up.” I smiled as Nikki’s Mom picked me up and set me down on my little part of the table. I sat down crossed legged as Nikki’s Mother grabbed some plate from the counter.

“Nicholas, get down here, breakfast is ready.” I chirped as she put the plates down on the table.

“In a second,” I heard my trainer say from upstairs. I laughed to myself as I heard him run on the floor above me. “How do I look?” He said as he emerged and made his way down the stairs.

“Oh, you look so handsome!” Nikki’s Mother said as I gave a so-so gesture just to mess with him. He was wearing a dark blue shirt with red highlights and a pair of black shorts that went well with his tanned skin and shoulder length black hair. On his back was a blue and black backpack filled to the brim with everything we would need on our trip.

“Thanks mom,” he said as he set the backpack aside and sat down next to me. I waved and smiled cheekily.

“Here you two go. I made your favorite pecha berry pancakes.” My mouth watered as the pancakes were placed on our plates. Although I had only been exposed to human society for less than two weeks, I could confidently say that baked goods were the best thing humanity had ever done.

I glanced over and cringed a little as Nikki poured combee honey on the already sweet food. I tore a piece of my own food with my psychic powers and levitated it to my mouth. The sugar and added pecha berries were also sweet enough for me.

“You do know the only reason I’m not stopping you from pouring that much is because you’re leaving home right?” Nikki’s mother gave her son a narrowed look as she ate her own breakfast.

“Of course I do,” Nikki said matter-of-factly.

Nikki’s Mother tried to keep a straight face but to no avail. A moment after he said that she was breaking and a moment after that she was straight up laughing. Her son joined in on the laughter soon after. I just ate.

What could I say, they were good pancakes.

We finished up eating and Nikki shared one last goodbye with his mother.

“I’m going to miss you.” She said as she pulled her son into a hug. I fought the slight hint of jealousy poking its head out over my heart. Mostly by finding a sudden interest in the wall. “It’s just too bad that your father and sister wasn't able to see you off too.”

“Its fine, dad had to get to work and Ali has school. I already said what I had to say to them yesterday.” I suddenly felt myself get picked up.

“And I’m going to miss you two Brook.” I squirmed as Nikki’s mother rubbed her cheek with hers. I couldn't help but laugh. Nikki let out a sigh but didn't bother trying to save me.

The traitor.

Instead, he reached for the object that was attached to a metal rod clipped to his breast pocket. It was an object that I had spent the last few days getting to know.

“Brook, you want to travel on my shoulder through town or do you want to wait until we reach the woods?”

Well, on one hand, it would be a bit of let down to start my adventure by traveling in a pokéball. But on the other hand, I’d avoid having to deal with urban travels. I still wasn’t used to the sheer number of humans that lived in Petalburg.

The thought of dealing with the crowds made my choice for me. I pointed at the pokéball.

“Alright then, Brook return.” He clicked the ball and I felt myself get sucked in.

Pokéballs were weird. It was like a tiny little world all my own. In my case, the pokéball looked like a forest on a calm summer day. The only thing out of place was the obviously artificial round metal platform in the dead center.

Of course, it only looked like this because I wanted it to. I had complete control over what this place looked like. In fact, a part of me wanted to replace the forest with a target range to work on my aim. But for now, I figured I’d just relax for now.

With that decided I shrunk the space of the ball and got rid of the forest. With everything cleared and out of the way, I was able to look outside and into the world.

I watched as Nikki made his way through town, waving at a few people he knew who wished him good luck. It was actually pretty nice experience all things considered. Being attached to Nikki’s front chest meant that I didn't sway too much, just a gentle rocking motion.

I ended up fighting to stay awake all the way to the edge of town.

The city of Petalburg came to a weird and sudden stop at its edge. Or at least the South-West part of the town did. There were the buildings, the road, and then forest as far as the eye can see. I thought back to what the psychic energy in both the city and forest felt like.

It made me wonder what it would look like if I opened myself up here.

“Brook,” Nikki grabbed my pokéball. “Go!” He clicked the ball and gently tossed it into the air. I emerged and landed on the ground.

I stretched and let out a yawn.

“You ready?” I gave him a thumbs up. “Alright then, let’s go.” He started to squat down to pick me up when I had an idea.

I activated my power and noted that this area did indeed have a weird half-and-half feeling to it. Interesting, but not too distracting. Instead, I pointed my arms down and let out two blasts of psychic energy.

I rocketed off the ground and into Nikki’s arms.

“Whoa!” He yelled as he caught me. He put me on his shoulder and glared at me a little. “I feel as though I’m going to regret thinking up that move.”

I laughed from my shoulder perch as we set off.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When I read about the travels of famous trainers, they never talked about how boring it could be to travel through the woods on foot. I’d been on the road for maybe four hours at this point, and I was bored out of my life. And this was just the start, my destination a day and a half away.

“I spy something, green.”

Said destination was Petalburg docks. The trip was pretty short when you went by car. By foot through the woods was considerably longer. Still, it was the closest place where I could get a boat to Dewford Island.

An image of a tree flashed in my head.

“Correct.”

A simple image of the color green entered my head.

“Is it a tree?”

Brook nodded.

“Okay, so I spy something, gre…” I was cut off by a low growl. I quickly scanned my surroundings only to see that it was coming from Brook. “Yeah, I’m getting tired of this too. So what do you want to do?”

Brook shrugged and draped over my shoulder, nestling in and making herself comfortable.

“Well, at least you’re enjoying yourself. Enjoy this while it lasts, once you evolve you’ll be way too big for this.” She gave me a thumbs up and passed out on my shoulder.

“Are, are you asleep?”

No answer, which in this case, was all the answer I needed.

I kept walking for a little while when I came across a strange sight. I gently rubbed Brook’s head.

“Brook, you might want to see this.”

Brook woke up from her nap and stared with me.

Lying in the middle of the path was a sleeping girl maybe a year or two older than me. Or at least, I hoped she was sleeping. She was splayed out face down on the ground. I couldn’t even see if she was breathing or not.

She was blond, with a white shirt, gray pants, and black gloves.

“Should we help her?”

Brook, being the helpful little pokémon she was, shrugged her shoulders in indifference. I walked over to the collapsed girl.

“Hey, you alive down there?” I asked the girl. I raised an eyebrow as her head moved to the side.

“Please, food.” She said with a pitiful moan.

“I guess that it is a good time for lunch anyway.” I figured as I sat my bag down on the ground.

Brook and I set up a small camp in a clearing by the side the road as the collapsed girl watched us. It was a simple affair, a lone picnic blanket held down by my backpack and a random rock I found nearby. By the side of the blanket was a small electric stove heating some water.

A few minutes later the collapsed girl was sitting opposite Brook and I, eating an instant meal. She was wearing a white shirt with a jacket and pants, both a dull Gray. She had blond hair that was cut in what I think was called a pixie cut.

Next to her were two Kanto pokémon, Doduo and Oddish, that I had never seen before. The large bird was eating some feed that the girl had in her own pack. The plant was just standing in the sun, soaking up the rays.

I wondered for a moment if there were any plant type specialist trainers who picked their path due to how cheap it was to feed pokémon that literally ate sunlight.

Brook and I were eating our own food of course.

“So what’s your name?” I asked as she ate the last of her food.

She said something that was hard to make out with all the food in her mouth. She held up her finger as though to tell me to wait a moment. She finished chewing and washed it down with her tea.

“Name’s Laura, from Celadon city.”

“I’m Nic…”

Brook dove into my lap. She chirped as a word rang in my head.

“Nikki.”

“Brook was that you?” I asked slack-jawed. She turned around and nodded.

“What else can you say?” She pouted for a moment before I heard my nickname again. “Is Nikki all you can say?”

She looked down bashfully before giving me a hesitant thumbs up.

“So Nikki, where you from?”

I suddenly realized just what Brook did.

“No I mean, my name… Oh forget it,” I gave up, Brendan had won and this was my life now. I took a deep breath and cast myself off the metaphorical highest mountain in Sinnoh.

“I’m Nikki, from Petalburg city.”

“Oh, are we close to there?”

“Yeah, I just started my journey a few hours ago.”

“A few hours? Really?” she said sounding a bit bummed out.

“Yeah really,” I rubbed the back of my head. “So what about you, how’d you end up collapsed on the road with no food? Especially since you somehow had enough for your pokémon in your pack?”

She glanced down at the feed that her Doduo was eating.

“Bird food is easier to transport then human food.” She explained. “As for why I was passed out… I left Fallarbor for Rustboro and I got lost on the way.”

“You got lost?” I said before what she said set in. “Wait what? Fallarbor to Rustboro? We’re way past Rustboro. How did you miss one of the largest cities in the region?”

“I don’t know! The first hint of human civilization I’ve seen since leaving Fallarbor was a sign that said ‘Petalburg this way’. I tried following it but my food supplies ran out days ago.”

I just gaped.

“So… where are you headed?”

“I’m heading for Petalburg port to take a ship to Dewford Island,” I muttered, still shocked at how Laura had managed to somehow miss two cities on her trip.

“Oh, is there food there?”

“Yes,” I said with a nod.

“I see,” She crossed her arms, closed her eyes and nodded. “Well that settles it,” She unfolded her arms and placed her hands on her knees. “I’m joining you.”

“Wait what?”

“Yeah, come on, traveling is always more interesting in a group.”

“I guess, but weren’t you trying to head to Rustboro?”

“Yeah, but the plan from there was to head to Dewford. We’re both going the same way.”

“I guess we can join up for a while then.” I got up from the blanket. “And since we’re going to be traveling together, mind helping me put all this stuff away?”

“Sure thing, Doduo, Oddish, you two help too.” She said to her pokémon who both got to work. Or at least, the little work they could do since neither of them had arms. Between the five of us, we had everything cleared up quickly. I placed the trash in a separate bag and put it away for disposal once we reached the port.

“Okay let’s head out,” I said as I started walking, Brook back on my shoulder. However, after a second or two, I noticed that Laura wasn’t following me. “Changed your mind?”

I turned around and saw her smile at me.

“I almost forgot the most basic part.” She said still smiling.

“What do you mean?”

“What usually happens when two trainers meet?”

I realized what she meant.

“They have a battle,” I answered.

“That’s right, you feeling up for your first real pokémon battle?”

“Sure but, how did you know this is my first battle?” I was curious about how she could have known? Did I give off the feeling of someone who’d never battled before?

“Because you just told me that you just started your journey today a few minutes ago.” She stuck her tongue out at me playfully as I felt a blush come to my face.

“Oh right,” I tried to not meet her eyes as Brook sniggered.

“You ready?”

“Yeah, I am,” I looked at Brook. “You up for this?”

Brook didn’t even bother answering. Instead, she just jumped off my shoulder. She hit the ground in a three-point landing, landing on both of her feet and her fist.

“I guess that answers that. Alright Brook, this is our first proper battle. Let’s show her what we got.”

“Looks like you got the trainer attitude down already.” She smiled and pointed forward. “Doduo, let’s show the rookie how it’s done.”

We took positions on opposite sides of the clearing.

“Let’s start this off Doduo, give her a peck attack.”

Doduo rushed forward towards Brook. I thought about telling Brook to counter but realized she was nowhere near fast enough to do so.

“Brook dodge.”

Brook dodged to the side the left Doduo head snapped forwards with their beak. I had to think of a way to deal with this quickly. Maybe if I…

“Doduo keep up going, switch to fury attack.”

Doduo obliged, striking forwards with its right beak this time. Brook managed to dodge this one too, but she was pushed back in the process. Before I could say anything, Doduo reared its right beak back and struck with it's left. Brook had to back step and dodge again, pushing her further back.

Over and over Doduo would attack, alternating its head each time and each time Brook would get pushed further and further back.

Maybe if I had Brook use burst. Doduo was certainly close enough to feel the full brunt of the non-attack.

No. Using Burst once was still too exhausting for Brook to use this early in a fight. If Burst didn’t win outright, Brook didn’t stand a chance afterword.

Burst was too much of a gamble, but Brook did have another move. A move that I hadn’t found a real use for until now.

“Brook use growl.”

Growl was one of those basic moves that you never saw anyone use ever. A blast of sound that temporally lowered your opponents attack by a little bit. It was basically worthless. It lasted the shortest amount of time and the attack loss was so minimal, that you were better off just attacking.

But it did have another use.

Brook back stepped another attack before inhaling deeply. Doduo struck its left head forward. Instead of back steeping again, she sidestepped and grabbed Doduo head. She let out a loud chirp enhanced by her psychic power Right into the bird’s ear. Even standing behind her, the chip was loud enough and sudden enough to almost make me jump.

Doduo, who took the full force of the sound, froze its attack.

“Now while their open, Brook use confusion.”

Brook let go of the head and thrust both of her palms forward. Her horns glowed green and two blasts of green tinted air blasted Doduo away. The flying type tumbled away, recovering near the edge of the clearing. Brook and I managed to give ourselves some much-needed breathing room.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My first battle was going well. Grabbing Doduo head like that felt a bit too mean but I wanted a win for my first match. And a win was what it looked I was headed for.

But I couldn’t let up now, I was still far off from victory.

“Doduo, charge forward.”

“Brook use confusion before Doduo can get closer.”

Doduo blasted towards me and I aimed a quick confusion at him. I scowled as he dodged my attack. I sent another one, making him go further to the left.

“Brook, aim a strong confusion at Doduo legs.” I took aim and sent a strong blast at the bird’s legs. The blast was too big for him to sidestep. Instead, he jumped upwards, clearing the blast completely.

“Quick Brook, confusion while they’re in the air and can’t dodge.”

I smirked as I took aim at Doduo. I had the shot lined up and I felt the power course through me. I got ready to unleash my power and end the fight.

“Doduo, use rage.”

The sheer anger emanating from the two pairs of eyes stopped me dead in my tracks. Doduo shifted itself in the air so that its outstretched foot was pointed right at me. It let out a cry and did something that I was unaware that it could do.

The wingless bird flew.

A sudden gust of air from behind him launched him right at me.

I crossed my arms and braced for impact, I had no time to do anything else.

“Brook!” I heard Nikki yell as Doduo crashed into me foot first. Even having braced myself, I was still blown backward. I grimaced as I skid on the ground. I watched as Doduo took a second to recover from the impact himself.

Which was great for me because I still had a powerful confusion ready to go.

I shot the blast at Doduo while he was still recovering. The bird was helpless to avoid it and took the full brunt of the attack.

“Oh should not have done that little trigger finger.” Laura sang as she waved her finger at me as though to admonish me.

I glanced back at Nikki to see if he had any idea as to what she was on about had.

He looked pale and stressed.

“Brook do you know what Rage does?”

I shook my head.

“It’s an attack that gets stronger if the user is hit after it’s used.” He pointed at something in front of me.

I still didn’t get what the big deal was. The first rage hadn’t been that bad, what would a tiny little boost do? I turned around and got ready to face Doduo and its slightly higher power.

Had… had Doduo been surrounded by a swirling red rage aura earlier? Because he definitely had it now.

I was beginning to understand why hitting Doduo with that last confusion might have been a mistake.

“Keep the rage going Doduo!” Laura called out as Doduo jumped towards me. He spun forward and extended his leg out. I suddenly found myself frozen in place as I watched Doduo heel descend upon me.

“Brook, dodge forward!” I lowered my head and stuck my arms behind me. I jumped forwards and let out two blasts, hoping that they didn’t hit anything behind me. I exploded forwards, dashing underneath my flying opponent. I looked back and watched as Doduo’s kick impacted the spot where I had been standing.

I gulped as the spot exploded in a cloud of dust and dirt. I imagined myself in their place and found myself thankful for Nikki keeping my head on straight.

I came to a skidding stop just as the red aura around Doduo began to subside. All I had to do was avoid hitting him with confusion until the aura was gone completely and I was in the clear.

“Brook, quick, hit Doduo with the fastest confusion you can. Don’t bother making it strong, prioritize speed.”

“Are you insane?” I loudly chirped even though I knew that he couldn’t understand what I was saying.

“Trust me.” He said calmly as he raised up on of his hands and…

We were going to have words and metal images after this. I was the one who gave thumbs up in this partnerships, not him.

Still, trusting him had done well for me so far, why stop now? I shot out something that I would barely call a blast. It did the job though, whatever it was that the job was. The shot hit Doduo in the back, making both heads suddenly snap backwards. I gulped as the red aura, which had almost vanished, returned in a flare.

“Okay now focus on avoiding his attacks,” Nikki explained as Doduo started charging towards me. “Try to get some quick confusions in but don’t go for damage, just keep Doduo annoyed.”

I pointed my arms downwards and got ready to jump. I narrowed my eyes as I waited for the signal.

“Now jump!” I leaped forward and let loose a psychic blast that launched me right over Doduo. I flipped through the air, to the point that I was upside-down when Doduo passed underneath me. Remembering Nikki’s command, I took the chance to hit Doduo with another confusion. The small blast also gave me enough momentum to spin further forward and land on my feet.

A good thing too because the second my feet touched the ground I felt something right behind me.

I snapped my arms behind me and blasted off, this time caring quite a bit if I hit anything behind me.

I landed with a skip near the edge of the clearing and turned to Doduo.

If the red aura had been a swirling mass before, now it was an apocalyptic torrent of blood red that cast my opponent in shadow. Within the dim glow, I could make out two pairs of glowing red eyes watching me, getting ready to strike.

“Alright looks like it’s time.” I heard Nikki mutter to my relief. These confusion boosts were starting to take the wind out of me. “Okay then Brook,” he said much louder this time. “Stand still and wait for Doduo to come to you.”

“Oh,” Laura said. “Just what do you have planned?”

Doduo charged straight at me its heads and legs flailing through the air as he charged me.

As I watched Doduo claw its way through the air to reach me I noticed two things.

The first was that I was terrified out of my mind. The other was that Doduo really favored his left side. His left steps stomped harder and his left head was much wilder.

I got ready to dodge to the right as Doduo got in range to hit me. It raised its left leg forward and slid towards me.

“Now Brook, duck and roll.” I followed the command and heard a loud crashing sound and something breaking.

I spun and got ready to deal with Doduo, only to find out that I didn’t have to bother. Doduo had struck the tree that had been behind me. The tree was nearly broken, and Doduo was holding his foot in pain.

“Brook use confusion on the branches above Doduo.”

Doduo, Laura and I all glanced upwards. There were indeed a few branches sticking out over the clearing above Doduo.

I raised my hand up and took aim.

One confusion later and the branches came tumbling down on top of Doduo, knocking the bird out.

“Doduo, return,” Laura called out as Doduo dissolved into a red light that was sucked up into his pokéball. I looked over at Nikki and cheered. He did the same as he ran over to me. He picked me up as the two of us celebrated.

Our first real battle, the first of countless to come, had ended in complete victory.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“You did pretty well for your first battle,” Laura told me as we walked. Brook had been tired after the fight, and I had been about to return her to her pokéball. However, she had effused to go in and had instead chosen the apparent comfort of being draped over my shoulder.

Either way, she was enjoying a well-deserved break so I was fine with it.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, you had a hiccup here or there but you’ve already figured out something that way too many veteran trainers never bother learning. Want to guess what it was?”

I racked my brain, thinking the battle over. Nothing really came to mind.

Laura smiled and pointed her finger out as if to lecture me.

“How to use the environment to your advantage.”

I stopped for a second.

“Really, that feels like a basic thing.”

“You would be surprised by how many trainers never bother using the battlefield to their advantage. Which, to be fair, is mostly because they’re focusing on their pokémon’s raw abilities.”

“I guess that makes sense." My mind suddenly went back to something that Laura said earlier. “So you said you were from Celadon right? That’s all the way in Kanto. What brings you all the way to Hoenn?”

She laughed.

“It’s kind of a long story. Pretty personal too.”

“Oh I’m sorry,” I said as I felt my cheeks redden. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine. If I met someone from Hoenn traveling through Kanto I’d ask them the same thing.” She put on a thoughtful look. “The basic version is that my Mom made some choices that her family… didn’t approve off. Like her job, or her friends, or me.” She said as she cheerfully pointed at herself. “A few years back it got so bad that my Mom just decided to leave Celadon. Her job offered her a position in their Hoenn branch and she had some friends here so here we are.”

“Sounds…” I had no clue what to say. A family like that sounded completely foreign to me. The only word that I could think of that wasn’t guaranteed to offend her was probably. “Rough.”

“Eh, it fine. I like Hoenn better anyway. Nothing beats the beach on a hot day.”

“Does Kanto not have beaches?” That made no sense, there had to be at least a few beaches.

“There are two, neither of which were close to Celadon. Plus they were trash anyway. Not like the paradises all over Hoenn.”

“Huh, never really thought about it that way. Guess I take Hoenn’s beaches for granted.”

“You guys have no idea how good you guys have it beach wise.

"Oh look we’re coming up on the hill.”

There was a small hill on the trail to Petalburg port that overlooked the port that gave an amazing view. It was a perfect, scenic view of the place where I would set sail to my next destination.

“Hey, we saw it first.”

“Like it matters, it should go to us.” The three of us reached the top of the hill to a bizarre sight.

There were four people, two pairs standing across each other with a pokémon in the middle between them. However what caught my eye wasn’t the fact that these kids looked ready to fight. It wasn’t the fact that even though they were around Laura and my age, they had scars on their faces.

No, it was the red and blue costumes that the two pairs wore.

“Uh excuse me?” Laura said before I could stop her. “Could you let us pass, you’re blocking the road.”

All four of them turned to us and glared. They all yelled at once.

“Stay out of this. This is team Neo-Aqua business.”

“Stay out of this. This is team Neo-Magma business.”


	3. Primal forces on the very shaky rise

I was too young to really remember the bulk of the Aqua-Magma conflict. Sure as I got older I started learning about all the terrible things the two teams did back in the day, but a toddler doesn’t really pay much attention to stuff like that.

However, there was one exception. Five years ago, when Kyogre and Groudon were awakened. My family had been visiting one of mom’s relatives in Lilycove at the time. We got first row seats to what to my young eyes looked like the end of the world.

Both teams were dissolved after that to no one’s surprise. Their leaders were arrested as were the Luxray’s share of their members. Only a small handful were left, escaped to scatter to the wind.

So seeing four kids my age wearing aqua and magma uniforms was something that I was not expecting to see today.

“What the heck are Team Neo-Magma and Team Neo-Aqua?” We all stood in place and stared at Laura in silence. A wind blew past us all and made the leaves in the trees above us rustle. Brook glanced up from her nap to see what the commotion was about.

She decided to just go back to sleep.

“What!” Said the pink haired boy in the red Magma uniform that looked a few sizes too big for him. The pants were rolled up and baggy. The boots were replaced with red sneakers. The hoodie was pulled down and the sleeves of the undershirt were roughly cut to not cover the hands. “How do you not know the greatness of Team Magma?”

“Now Chris,” The blue haired girl in the magma uniform told her, friend I guess, and put her hand on his shoulder. She adjusted her glasses with her other hand. Her uniform was also too big for her, having the same kind of alterations to make them fit right that he did. “She probably means that she hasn't heard about Neo-Magma. We did just start the team. Give it time. One day we’ll be as famous as the old Team Magma. And as our leader, you’ll be just as famous.”

“Thanks’ Charlie. You’re right, we just have to keep working hard and what do you Team Aqua punks think you’re doing?”

I looked over to the other pair who had picked up the pokémon and had been apparently been trying to sneak away.

“We’re taking this rare shroomish for the glory of team Neo-Aqua!” Yelled the dark-skinned boy in the oversized team Aqua uniform. In fact, I was pretty sure that those poofy ‘pants’ were supposed to be shorts.

“Yeah, you tell em boss, for the glory of Team Neo-Aqua!” Yelled the black haired girl in the team Aqua uniform who looked maybe a year or two younger than me. Or maybe she was just insanely short, no idea. Her uniform was, just like the rest of them, comically oversized.

It then struck me that, if I had heard them right, the two boys were apparently the leaders of their respective teams.

“Dwain, Carol, listen,” The magma girl said in a condescending voice. “A pokémon of that potential and rarity would be wasted on buffoons such as yourselves. It’s best if it came under the care of Team Neo-Magma. We could bring out its full power much better than you two ever could.”

“You calling us stupid?” The Neo-Aqua boy, Dwain I figured, yelled at the top of his lungs.

“We ain’t stupid, you’re stupid!” The small Neo-Aqua girl, Carol, shrieked.

“What an amazing comeback,” Charlie said in a monotone voice. “Did you come up with it all own your own? Why it’s so good, I think that I’ll have to write it down and put it up on my fridge.”

“So,” Laura pulled my sleeve and loudly whispered in my ear as the four Neo kids kept arguing. “Who the heck are team Magma and Aqua?”

All four of them froze in place and turned to us again. I noticed that Brook had also shuffled and was now standing on my shoulder. She must have gotten woken up by all the commotion.

“She’s from Kanto,” I said as I held my hand out. “Give us a second?”

The four glared but slowly nodded. I grabbed Laura and pulled her into a huddle.

“Well, a few years ago there were two teams called Aqua and Magma that tried to use legendary pokémon to expand the seas and land respectively. They ended up almost causing an ecological disaster and most of them ended up in jail.” I said, trying to downplay the near-apocalypse that the two teams had caused.

The fewer people knew that the world had almost ended in Hoenn, the better.

“As for Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma, I have no idea. Based on the names I guess that they’re successors to the old team.”

“That’s right Ralts boy.” The magma kid named Chris said.

“Ralts boy?” I whispered to Laura who shrugged.

“Team Neo-Magma is the proud continuation of the legacy of Team Magma.” Chris continued “We’ll free our leaders from their unjust imprisonment, find the orbs, and expand the land.”

“Not if team Neo-aqua breaks Archie out, and expands the seas first idiots.”

“Please, you Neo-Aqua fools couldn't break yourselves out of a wet cardboard box if both ends were already torn open.”

I winced as both teams went back to arguing.

“So what you’re telling me is that their like Team Rocket but dumber?” Laura whispers, this time quietly enough for the two teams not to hear.

“Alright, that’s it. If you’re not going to listen to us then we’ll just have to do this the hard way!” Dwain took out a pokéball.

“Yeah, the hard way!” Carol followed her leader and took out a pokéball too.

“Bring it on!” Chris got out a pokéball from his pocket.

“So eager to lose, it’s almost funny.” Charlie glared and took out a pokéball.

All four of them looked ready to throw down.

For a pokémon that was taking the chance to escape and waddle towards us.

“Pretty much,” I answered Laura as the Shroomish waddled up to me.

They let out a quiet squeal that caught the attention of Brook.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Oh hi down there.” I waved to the small plant thing that I think I heard called a Shroomish.

“You have any idea what’s going on?” He asked me.

I poked Nikki’s head.

“What’s up Brook?” I pointed towards the ground. “You want me to put you down?” I nodded and he did as I asked.

“That’s better,” I said as my feet touched the ground and I was able to talk to Shroomish face to face. “So I’m not exactly an expert in the human language, but I pretty sure they’re arguing over you.”

“Yeah I can kind of understand humans a little, but I can’t figure out why.”

“No clue, I think they’re saying you’re a rare and potentially powerful pokémon.”

“I am?”

“I have no idea.” I shrugged. “So, what can you do?”

“Well I can hit people with my head, I can drain energy and I can spores that cause things to not be able to move anymore.”

“That's cool, why didn't you use them on the humans over there?” I pointed over to the four humans over there and the two of turned to look at them. They were waving around their Pokéballs without calling out their pokémon. They looked like idiots.

“The spores take a while to make and I try to save them for when I need them. None of them were really hurting me so I figured that I didn't really need them. Plus they didn’t really feel like a threat.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

We turned back to face each other.

“Names Brook,” I said as I pointed at myself. “What’s your name?”

“Don’t really have one.”

“Really, Your parents didn't give you one?” I mean, my mother was a stain on my life but at least she gave me a name. Although for reason the term ‘ralts with no name’ sounded cool in my head. No idea why.

“Well, I didn't really have parents. Us shroomish just grow from spores in the ground after all.”

“That’s weird,” I commented. “You’re weird.”

I made a snap decision.

“I like weird, I like you. Want to come along on my adventure? I’m going around the world on a quest to explore and get stronger.”

The shroomish went silent as he mulled it over.

“I got nothing better to do. Sure why not.”

“Really? That’s great! One more person to bear witness on my quest to become the strongest pokémon to ever live.”

“So I have to go into your trainer’s pokéball right?”

“Yeah, it’s surprisingly nice in there. Like I thought it would be super cramped and uncomfortable but it’s like, super big on the inside or something.”

“Never knew that.”

“So you ready then,” I said as I fired up my psychic powers and unzipped one of the side pockets of Nikki’s backpack. I telekinetically grabbed one of the pokéballs and raised it out of the pocket.

“Might as well.”

“Yay!” I let out a loud cheer as I telekinetically tossed the ball at him. It stood still and made a clicking sound.

“And just like that, another member has been added to the adventuring party,” I told myself as I picked up the now small pokéball and nodded sagely.

I suddenly noticed that the loud arguing that Shroomish and I had been ignoring had stopped at some point. I looked around and saw that, for some reason, everyone was looking at me.

“What?”

“Brook, what did you?” Nikki looked at me like I had just done something really dumb.

“What did you do?” All four of the weirdly dressed humans demanded at once.

“Now hold on for a moment,” Nikki said as he put both of his hands up. “Let’s talk this through.”

“No chance.”

“You messed with Team Neo-aqua and now you’re going to get it.”

“Team Neo-Magma’s pride demands you pay for what you did.”

“We’ll mess you up punk.”

All four of them threw down their pokéballs and four flashes of white light appeared and lined up in front of me.

From right to left there was a pokémon with red fur and what looked like six tails, a brown doll thing with red lines on it, a red shiny thing with big claws and….

“A poochyena!” I shrieked as I shrunk back. Poochyena were the bane of Raltses. Our psychic powers didn't do anything to them, leaving us defenseless against them.

I gulped. How could I expect to become the strongest pokémon in the world if I couldn’t overcome a single dark-type?

I took a deep breath, puffed up my chest and pointed at the Poochyena.

“I’m not afraid of you,” I said doing my best to keep my finger from shaking. I thought I was doing a good job at it too.

“Do you even have any attacks that can hurt me?” The dark-type asked.

I said nothing, not trusting myself to be able to bluff him and not wanting to let him know that I couldn’t really hurt him.

“Brook what are you doing?” Nikki asked me sounding worried. Wasn’t sure why, I could totally do this. Four on one were bad odds.

For my soon to be slaughtered foes that is. Now, what would be the best way to commutate that to Nikki? Wait, I got it.

I turned around and gave him my trademark thumbs up.

“Brook, the thumbs up doesn’t work nearly as well if your arm is shaking.” I frowned for a second before using my other hand to grab and steady my arm. Nikki sighed and covered his face with his palm for some reason.

“Brook return.”

What?

No really what?

Just off the heels of our first victory and we were running away. I let my arms fall to the side as I felt myself get drawn back into the pokéball.

I stood in the center of my own little world, seething. I didn’t even blink I stomped the ground and got myself out of there.

I reappeared in a flash of light in the spot where I had been standing. I let out a yell and faced my opponents head-on.

“Bring it on, I’ll take all four of you at once if I have to!”

“Brook why?” Nikki cried in unneeded panic.

“Let me even the odds a bit,” Laura called out as she sent out her pokéball. Her Oddish from earlier appeared by my side in a flash of white.

“You take the demon and red claw thing on the left and I’ll take sixtails and the doll thing on the right.”

“Shouldn’t that be up to our trainers?” She asked in a naive sounding voice that made me want to play a prank on her later.

“Brook, get ready. This is going to be rough.”

“You two Oddish, be careful.”

We both took our stand, ready to fight.

However, before anything could happen we heard a series of loud high-pitched noises approach us from behind our opponents.

“It’s the Fuzz!” One of the enemy trainers yelled out.

“Scatter!” one of the others called out before they all recalled their pokémon and ran away in different directions.

“Well, that’s one way to deal with the situation,” Nikki said as he walked up to me and knelt down to talk. “Why?”

“Why what?” I chirped knowing he couldn’t understand me. He just sighed. “I guess I should make it clearer. Why did you catch the shroomish?”

I sent him the mental image of me as a Gardevoire standing in a spotlight on a raised platform with the words ‘world’s strongest pokémon’ above me. I gave particular detail to the Shroomish next to Nikki. The two of them were looking up at me in awe in the image.

“You mean you almost got us into a giant fight with criminals because you wanted someone to show off to?” I nodded, still not understanding what his problem was.

We could have taken them. After all, the two of us were going to be the most unstoppable team in the world.

“First off, you misspelled strongest. Second of all, that could have ended really badly for us. Thirdly, I’m recalling you for now while we talk to the police.” He said as he held up my pokéball and clicked it. I pouted as I entered the pokéball.

I found myself standing in a familiar forest.

I crossed my arms as a small hammock appeared between two of the trees.

Might as well get some rest for now if I wasn’t going to do anything else. I got into the Hammock and tucked my arms behind my head.

“I still could have taken them.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The police car came to a stop in front of us. We watched as the doors swung open and both men stepped out.

“Hello, there officers.” I waved them hello.

“Hello there,” The short-haired younger one said. “My name is Officer Conner, that’s my partner Hank. We’re detectives with the Hoenn police force.” He motioned to the much older officer with long hair.

“Names, Laura and this here is Nikki.” Laura introduced us before I could react.

“Nice to meet both of you. You two kids wouldn’t have happened to have seen any suspicious characters around here.”

“About yea high,” She motioned to about my height. “Dressed in red and blue dumb looking uniforms, pick fights really easily?”

The older of the two officers, Hank, sighed.

“Yeah, that’s them all right. I don’t suppose you kids would mind coming down to the station and giving a statement?”

“I guess we could. Feels a bit weird to finish the first part of my pokémon journey in car though. But this is pretty important.”

“Oh, I just realized something. Nikki, did you pack enough food to last both of us until we got to Petalburg docks? After all, you did pack planning to make the trip solo.”

“No, no I didn't.” I got where she was going with this.

I raised an eyebrow as Laura dashed into the police car. She patted the seat next to her. “Come on, the faster we talk the cops the faster we can go eat.”

“How are you already hungry? We just ate a little while ago.” I asked as I took the seat and the cops got in front. She waited for the car to start up before she answered.

“I’m not, but by the time we to the station, talk to the police about what happened, get out, and find a place for the night, I will be.” She said, looking weirdly proud of herself. “It’s not about the hunger of now, but the hunger to come.”

It was at this point that I started to wonder just what I had gotten myself into. Finding Laura collapsed on the ground had been strange in the first place, but the girl just got weirder as time went on.

Well, how much weirder could she get? She couldn’t have more than maybe two weird quirks, right? Plus, maybe the whole preplan your hunger thing wasn’t that weird and it only sounded weird to me.

The rest of the trip to the docks passed by without incident. I was a bit bummed out at losing the chance to walk the rest of the way. Still, if these Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma guys were bad enough to get the police’s attention, then maybe it was for the best that we came with them.

Oh well, I could spend a night under the stars some other…

Until Laura convinced me otherwise, I had been planning to spend the night sleeping outdoors. Where anyone could have gotten at us. For example, four kids who claimed to be successors to groups that had stolen pokémon from people in the past.

“Laura you are way smarter then you act.”

“Thanks, it’s a gift. Do you know how smart I have to be to play this big an idiot? Good thing I’m a genius.” She crossed her arms and leaned back with a smug look on her face. Or at least she did until she hit the back of her head with the plastic part of the door. “Ouchies!”

“Yeah, a regular genius,” I remarked as she rubbed the back of her head. I glanced out of the car and saw that we were nearing our destination.

Petalburg docks was a tiny place for how big Petalburg proper was. A handful of docks ready to take both travelers and cargo, some buildings to support the shipping and travel businesses, and some more buildings to support those buildings. For example, the Petalburg Docks police station.

“This way please.” Conner showed us in and led us into an interrogation room. Hank split off from us before we got there, saying that he needed to get a few things.

“Sorry about the room,” Conner apologized, as he set up a recording device on the side of the table. “It’s a small station, so we don’t really have any place more appropriate than this.”

“Okay, I got the files,” Hank said as he walked in with folders in hand. He set them down on the table between us as he took a seat next to Conner. He flipped open one of the files and slid over ten photos to us. “The people you saw, these any of them?”

I gulped as I looked over the photos. They were five and five, five kids in overgrown Team-Aqua uniforms, five in overgrown Team-Magma uniforms. All of the photos looked they were zoomed in close-ups of a set of photos taken at one place. Most of the kids were sneering or in the process of turning around and running away.

“Are these all of them?” I asked as I went through each photo one by one.

“All the ones that we managed to get a good look at in the video,” Hank explained. “We got a noise complaint from a warehouse manager a few days ago. Imagine our surprise when we found a bunch of brats in old elemental team uniforms.”

Conner nudged his partner with his shoulder. “Maybe we shouldn’t call them brats since we’re dealing with two kids their age?”

“Oh it’s fine,” Laura said as Hank stuttered. “Call them whatever you want.”

I set the six other photos to the side and slid back the four photos that looked familiar.

“These were the four we saw.”

“Great these four, it had to be these four.” Hank sighed as he rubbed his eyes.

“What do you mean?” Laura said sounding interested.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hank said dismissively. “So what did they do?”

“We met up with them on the road here,” I began explaining. “They were arguing about a wild pokémon that they apparently found. The Neo-Aqua people were saying that they should keep the pokémon, the Neo-Magma people said they should keep the pokémon.”

“Neo?” Hank asked.

“It means ‘new’ Hank. As in New Aqua and New Magma.” Conner replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I know what Neo means Conner!” Hank said angrily. “I was going to ask the kid if he was sure what he heard!”

“They said both names more than once, and they were saying it specifically so that I would know them.” I clarified before continuing the story. They carefully listened and took notes from time to time, like when I told them their names, and that they had commented that the two boys were apparently the leaders of both teams.

“Well, I guess that confirms it without a shadow of a doubt,” Hank commented as he wrote down the last of the names.

“Confirms what, if you don’t mind me asking?” Laura asked. Hank opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Conner before he could get a word out.

“That the core of these Neo Teams is being formed by Magma and Aqua children.” My eyes widened at the words. The Aqua and Magma children were the younger family members of known Aqua and Magma members. Early in the conflict between the two teams, each had gathered anyone who could be used as a hostage and placed them in a secure facility. Both facilities had been found after the teams were dissolved and the children had been placed into the foster system.

As for how I knew all of that, I was friends with one of them. Zach was the son of a Magma member. He was a pretty nice guy and had told me about all of this about two years ago when I had asked him. He had left on his pokémon journey at ten, only to come back after making the bare minimum of two badges.

I told him not to fight Winona third. He came back telling horror stories of how her Skarmory had somehow managed to decimate his Numel three times in a row.

“All four of these children bear striking resemblances and share first names with notable children and younger siblings of prominent Aqua and Magma admins.” Conner continued as Hank just stared at him.

“Which is something that the Hoenn police force wanted to keep quiet as to not cause alarm, panic and ill will to the rest of the Aqua and Magma children, Conner!” Hank said finally cutting in. He looked at us intently before pointing at both of us. “Neither of you say a word about this, got it.”

“We won’t!” Laura and I said in synch.

“Good.” Hank sat back. “So, now that we have that established, what else happened?”

I continued the story until I reached one specific part that made them both stop.

“Wait your ralts did what?” Hank looked like he had just heard the weirdest thing he had ever heard.

“She… caught the pokémon.” I explained even though I wasn’t too sure what happened myself.

“Run that by me again.”

“While we were trying to calm the Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma people, she telekinetically lifted a pokéball out of my bag and caught the pokémon. After that, the four of them got pretty angry and tried to fight the two of us.”

“Yeah, they sent out their pokémon and were about to order them to attack us.” Laura followed up. “If you two hadn’t shown up then and there, things might not have gone too well for us. Thanks for that by the way.”

“It was our pleasure Miss.” Conner nodded.

The two of them asked us a few more question before letting us go. Hank thanked us for our time, told us that he had some people he needed to talk to and left Conner to see us out. Before we left I asked Conner if we should worry about either team coming after us.

“They won’t pull something in town, way too risky.”

“I see, you two wouldn’t be able to point us to the closest pokémon center would you?”

Conner smiled before giving us very exact directions.

“Thanks’ Detective.” Laura jumped on my shoulder and gave the man a grin. “Come on Nikki, let’s go.”

We found ourselves in front of a pokécenter only a few minutes later. It helped that Petalburg Docks was small enough that getting hard was hard for even the most directionally challenged.

The building itself was pretty plain, a simple two-story building with a red roof and pokéball logo above the door. It was actually pretty boring as far as pokécenter’s went. Of course, there was always the chance that I’d been spoiled by the multistory, mural decorated piece of art that was the Petalburg pokécenter.

As I walked through the door I was struck again by how plain the place was. A simple brown tile floor with a nurse manning a desk in front of a machine.

“Welcome to the Petalburg Port pokémon center.” She greeted. “Please allow us to check your pokémon.”

The process was simple enough. I gave the nurse the trainer I.D. that I got from The Professor the day I caught Brook in her pokéball. She handed me a tray with six indents on it. I placed Brook’s pokéball on the tray before suddenly remembering that I had a second pokémon now.

She put my two pokémon through a scanner and we both waited a few seconds. The results appeared on a small screen on the machine.

“Looks like both of your pokémon are in good health. A night of rest will have both of them in top shape.” She told me as she removed the tray from the machine and passed me my pokéballs back.

“You go find us a table to eat at while I get my own pokémon checked,” Laura said as the nurse passed her the same tray that she had given me. I was about to argue that I wasn’t even that hungry when I noticed a hunger in my stomach.

I marched off to the pokécenter’s cafeteria, trying not to think about Laura’s earlier point about predicting her own hunger.

The cafeteria was pretty empty, leaving me the pick of whichever table I wanted. I picked a small corner table, set my backpack to the side, and took a seat.

I leaned back and thought about what happened earlier. Over the years, I imagined myself making my first catch a bunch of times. All of them involved me actually catching pokémon in question, not this bizarre situation that I was in now.

I popped open my bag and dug around a bit before pulling out a small black and blue machine. It was a low-end basic pokédex. It didn’t have the scanning ability for wild pokémon but it could analyze pokémon that were already in a pokéball.

I slotted my Shroomish’s, it still felt weird to think that way, pokéball into the dex and waited for it to scan. I flashed back to Brendan and I getting it almost a year ago. At the time he had offered to get me a top of the line pokédex, instant scanning, teleporting capabilities to switch pokémon out in the field, even the ability directly teach TMs. I had instead elected to buy a basic model with my own allowance. At the time, I hadn’t wanted to accept such a big handout from Brendan, and I wanted to really call it my own.

But now that I was stuck waiting while the dex scanned the pokéball, I found myself regretting that decision.

“Hey what’s that?” Laura asked as she sat down across the table from me.

“A pokédex, how's your Doduo?”

“He’s fine. That trick you pulled with the tree branch didn’t do that much harm.” She leaned closer to get a closer look at the pokédex. “Pretty basic model.” She commented.

“Yeah, the best the money of child’s allowance can buy.”

“The fact that you can buy them in stores weirds me out. Growing up I always heard that having a pokédex was a huge deal.”

“Imagine if they just gave them out to every trainer.” I joked.

“Oh wow, that would be insane.” She cackled, my laughter soon joining hers. “So, what’s the word on our newest traveling buddy?”

“I’m still waiting for the dex to finish…” A loud beep cut me off. I glanced over and saw the word ‘DONE’ flash on the dex’s screen. “Never mind.” I said as I picked it up.”

“Shroomish, Male, good condition.” I started reading off information on the screen. “Knows tackle, absorb, and stun spore. Stun spore might be pretty useful against Brawly. Ability is poison heal, that might come in handy as a nasty surprise against any poison types.”

“Why would someone send out a poison type against a Shroomish? I mean it is part poison itself.”

I looked at her like she has just grown a second head.

“No, it’s a pure grass type.”

“Wait pure grass types other than Tangela are a thing?” She asked in confusion. “I thought all grass types were also part poison.”

“Are you sure that’s not a Kanto thing?” I vaguely remembered hearing that Kanto didn’t have too many grass types that weren’t also part poison. I thought that maybe it had been someone making a joke. But here I had a Kanto native going so far as to think that non-grass/poisons didn’t exist. Maybe it hadn’t been a joke after all.

“Maybe.” She placed her head down in shame. I heard what sounded like a sniffle coming from her.

“Are you okay?” Had the comment gone too far? I hadn’t wanted to actually hurt her feelings or anything.

She sniffled again and started lifting her head up. She wasn’t crying, she wasn’t even frowning. Instead, she had her eyes closed and I could clearly see that what I had heard wasn’t sniffling, but sniffing. Her head raised higher and higher with each sniff until she was facing upwards.

“Food.” She said as she brought her head forward again.

I rolled my eyes and followed after her.

We bought and ate our meals quickly and without too much conversation. I had focused on reading the rest of the information on Shroomish and Laura had focused on eating. I also bought some premium Ralts food for Brook at the same counter where I had paid for my own food.

I still had some of the standard pokémon rations that Brook normally ate. However, the food in the pokécenter was pretty good, and treating myself and not doing the same for Brook, even though I was still a little angry at her, didn’t sit well with me.

We finished up and made our way upstairs. Laura told me that she had gotten us a room for the night. Something that suited me just fine because pokécenter rooms were cheap and much, much nicer than any hotel even double the price.

One of the many perks of being an actively traveling trainer. Still, a part of me wondered how many people abused the system by just staying at a pokécenter and never moving on. The answer now was zero after they put in the whole three nights max rule, but I still wondered about what it was before.

“I’m going to shower and change first.” Laura dug around her bag and grabbed some clothes. “That okay with you?”

“Its fine, I need to talk to Brook anyway.”

“Ouch, sounds like a fun conversation. I’ll stay out of your hair.” She hooked the door of the room’s bathroom with her foot, both of her arms still loaded with clothes. “Good luck.” She told me before closing the door.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was still mad when Nikki called me out of my pokéball.

“Hey.” Nikki started looking unsure. He didn’t say anything afterword. This was probably the part where I would have said ‘Hey’ back if I could speak Human. But I couldn’t so I didn’t.

Instead, I just waved to get the idea across.

Nikki grabbed a chair from the nearby desk and placed it across from one of the beds. I then allowed him to pick me up and set me down on the bed before he took a seat. I folded my legs and crossed my arms together over my bandana.

“Things could have ended really badly for us today.” I gripped my arms tighter. “I get it, you were looking forward to a fight. But you have to understand, those guys were dangerous. They wouldn’t have just stood back and fought us one at a time. If those cops hadn’t shown up, we would have had to fight all four of them at once.”

I growled. Of course I knew that. Of course they were going to gang up on us. I sent Nikki a mental image of me standing before the collapsed form of all four of them.

“Did, did you really think that you could have beaten all four of them?”

I nodded. I didn’t just think it, I knew it.

“Brook,” He was rubbing his face again. “You don’t even have an attack that can hurt dark types yet. Actually, now that I think about it, we probably should have addressed that sooner.”

Even as upset as I was I couldn’t help but agree with him. We really should have dealt with that earlier.

“But putting that aside, why did you think that you could have taken all four of them?”

I let out a sigh that I hadn’t noticed that I had been holding in. He knew why I had a problem with what happened. Just to make it clear I opened a link between us, a little stronger than normal.

I sent him a memory, one of the few that I considered precious to me.

We stood on Nikki’s balcony the night before we left.

“But to be the trainer of the world’s strongest pokémon,” He paused. “How could I say no?”

He smiled as the memory faded out.

A new one took its place. Me getting returned to my pokéball. The feeling of betrayal and anger at being held back. The need to prove myself against the world. All of it flowed through the memory.

And we were back in the room.

“So that’s why? Did you feel that, by recalling you, I had given up on your dream?”

I nodded.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

We looked at each other in awkward silence. I wasn’t sure what to do.

“You don’t remember the old days, I don’t really either.” He finally said. “But those guys back there, they were bad news. Five years ago, people from those groups almost ended the world.”

I blinked. What kind of insanity was Nikki talking about?

“I was a little kid at the time. I remember hugging my mom’s leg as the storm raged outside. It was like all of the water in the world was crashing down on the house. But after a few minutes, the rain stopped. We went outside and the sun had started to shine. We thought everything was over.”

He smirked bitterly.

“And then people started passing out from the heat. And after that, the fires started. We all ran back inside and turned the AC on. Not that we had too, because a few moments later the torrents came back. It stayed like that for an entire day, just switching between terrible rain and even worse sun.”

I leaned back in fear as Nikki’s voice got more intense.

“I thought the world was ending and in a way it was. The old Team Aqua and Magma had woken up Groudon and Kyogre. The people who we met today want to free the people who almost ended the world.”

He reached over and rubbed my head

“That’s why I got scared when I saw people wearing their old uniforms. I couldn’t help but think back to something that scared me as a kid.”

I tried to stay mad at him but found myself unable to.

I hadn’t told him yet. The reason why we had met in the first place. What I went through back home. I had managed to avoid the question whenever Warmth brought it up.

Still, maybe it would do some good to tell him. Why I had to be the best.

I opened myself up again.

“Brook?”

I stood in the center of a dark forest, maybe an hour before dawn. I was standing in front of a very familiar tree. To my right was Mother, to my left were both of my Brothers. I frowned for a moment, something about this felt wrong for some reason.

Oh right, I couldn’t see my bandana when I looked down.

I cringed as I felt myself going through the steps that Mother drilled into me day after day at this very spot.

I let loose the measly amount of power I had in me on the bush. It barely moved. It was hard to watch know that I knew what I could really do.

My Mother scowled before ripping into me.

“Pathetic. I spend so much of my time training you and this is the best you have? You are a leech Brook, a parasite weighing down this family.” She scoffed.

“Come on you two, leave this worthless girl. We have work to do before the sun rises.”

She walked away before stopping in place.

“Keep going. If I come back and see that you haven’t made any process, you won’t get dinner.”

Those were the worst days. The days I had an impossible looking task to do or else no dinner. I never did manage any of them.

I pulled away from the memory. Even if Nikki couldn’t understand what it was that my mother had been saying, I was sure that her tone and my emotions would carry what I had to say.

We were back in the room again. Nikki gave me a look that I couldn’t really describe. After a few seconds, he got up and walked over to me. I didn’t put up a fight as he picked me up into a hug.

“You’re okay, no need to cry.”

Why would he say that I wasn’t crying? I touched my eyes just to prove how dry they were.

Oh.

Guess I was crying.

“Guess you two made up.”

We both jumped, well Nikki jumped and I stayed on for the ride, at the sudden intrusion. It was Laura wearing a set of green comfortable looking clothing and with a towel wrapped around her hair.

“Yeah, I guess we did,” Nikki said hesitantly.

“Well, the shower’s all yours. I’m going to contact my mom and tell her how I’m doing.”

“You do that,” Nikki told her as he dug around his bag. He took out a change of clothes and a towel before heading into the bathroom.

“She’s so weird.” He commented as I looked forward to one of humanity’s other great achievements besides baked goods.

Glorious hot running water.

One relaxing bath later, the two of us were sitting across from each other again. This time, however, we were both sitting with our legs crossed on the floor, a certain drama causing pokéball between us.

“Just get on with it already,” Laura said as she typed on something that she called a pokégear.

We both glared at her.

“She has a point.” Nikki pointed out as he grabbed the pokéball. “Come on out, Shroomish.”

There was the now increasingly familiar flash of white light and then the Shroomish was standing where the pokéball had been. He looked up at Nikki and tilted his head. Which was probably pretty hard to do since it was also his entire body.

“Hey there. I’m your trainer.” Nikki introduced himself. “So… hi?”

The rest of their little meeting went smoothly enough and two came to an agreement. I smiled as Shroomish was recalled into his pokéball, now an official part of the team.

After eating a bit of some frankly amazing food, I decided to turn in for the night.

And by that, I mean that I grabbed one of the pillows from Nikki’s bed and placed it down in the corner of the room.

I woke up the next morning to two people mumbling.

“Let…sleep… a few… time.”

“Should… her up… late… Breakfast.”

And that was my cue to wake up.

“Food,” I mumbled as I forced my eyes awake. I opened them to the sight of two blurry giants standing over me.

“Want some help?” One of them, Nikki probably, asked as they stretched their hand down. I grabbed it with both hands and held on as it pulled upwards. After a bit of pulling, I was standing on my feet.

We got ready for the day, enjoyed the free breakfast, and left the building where we had stayed the last night.

“Like I was telling you earlier, our boat leaves later today,” Nikki told me as I sat perched on his shoulder. “It’s the only one for the day. If we miss, we’ll have to take the one the day after tomorrow.”

“Why are there so few boats heading to Dewford?”

“It’s the offseason. If we were in vacation season, there’d be three boats leaving every day.”

“Sounds convenient. Maybe I should have waited for vacation season to start.”

“They also triple the ticket price.”

“Never mind.”

“I thought so.”

“So what do you want to do for the next few hours then?”

Nikki stopped in place. He looked pensive.

“I have no idea. There’s not much in Petalburg Docks besides the cruise lines to Dewford.”

The two of them stood in silence for a while.

“Want to watch the boats?” Laura broke the silence.

“Sure, why not.”

A few minutes later the three of us were standing in a small park overlooking the docks themselves. Nikki was standing with his arms crossed and me on his shoulder while Laura sat on top a nearby park table.

“Those are some big boats,” Laura commented. Nikki and I both nodded in agreement. “So what now?”

“No idea.” Nikki suddenly looked like he had an idea. “I know what we can do.”

He grabbed the other pokéball from his clip. “Go shroomish.”

Shroomish looked up at us and tilted his head again.

“Since we’re waiting for our boat to let us onboard, we might as well spend some time with our brand new teammate.”

“Sounds good,” Laura said with a smile before tossing out both of her pokémon. Oddish looked over at me smiled. Doduo looked down at me, his beaks making it hard to tell what he was feeling.

“Hey,” I told him. “No hard feeling about our fight?”

Both heads judged me for a second before nodding in unison.

“You did well for your first battle,” Both heads said at once. “We were impressed by both you and your trainer.”

“Really?”

“Really. You have good instincts and you trainer keeps a good head.”

I was taken aback by his praise.

“Oh, thanks.” I felt my face redden. I glanced over to Shroomish and Oddish who were apparently in a staring contest. “Hey look at that.” I pointed at them, hoping to change the subject.

Doduo and I walked over to the two who were locked in place. Laura and Nikki were also watching closely, not looking too sure what was going on either.

After what felt like an eternity, they both nodded and looked away. I walked up to both of them.

“What happened?” The two of them glanced at each, as though coming to an agreement on how to answer my question. The two of them spoke in unison.

“We have come to an understanding.”

I looked up to Doduo in confusion.

“Do you have any idea what that’s about?”

“Plant-types are strange and obtuse beings. Ask not about their ways, for down that road lay the way to madness.”

“Oh, thanks?”

I waddled over to the two humans in the group.

“Brook are you okay?” My trainer asked me.

I started to nod, before switching to shaking, before going back to nodding. In the end, I just did a weird diagonal movement.

“You know ever since I learned that the Ralts line was one of the few lines that can learn to speak telepathically, I’ve been looking forward to being able to understand you,” Nikki explained. “Today might be the first time I’ve been happy to not be able to understand you.”

I couldn’t help but agree.

“Alright, Shroomish let’s see what you can do,” Nikki said as I stood across an open field from the two. It felt a little weird going up against Nikki, even in a practice match, but learning what our new teammate could do was important. Plus, it wasn’t like he had to be all that strong anyway. I was still the hero of this team. But I had to admit that the idea of backup that could take care of the small fries appealed to me.

“Bring it.” I chirped.

“Shroomish, use tackle.”

I smirked as Shroomish ducked its head a little. A single tackle attack? I could take care of this no problem.

Or at least, that what I thought before Shroomish exploded into motion. He charged me with speed that someone with legs as stubby as his had no right to achieve.

I didn’t have to react, no time to block or dodge or even brace myself. I took the full brunt of the hit and was sent backwards.

Maybe it was time to take this seriously.

“Brook you alright?”

I brought myself up to my feet and let out an affirmative chirp.

“Alright so let’s keep going!”

Nikki and I spent a while going over Shroomish’s moves and getting Nikki used to commanding Shroomish. Well, most of his moves at least. Like he had told me the day before, he had a limited amount of spores and wanted to save them. As such we ended up not trying out stun spore for now. If that meant that I didn’t have to get paralyzed then I had no problem with that.

“Looks like you three made some good progress,” Laura commented as she checked the time. “Think we should start making our way over to the boat?”

Nikki checked the time on his watch.

“Yeah, it’s getting close to boarding time. The last thing we need is for the ship to leave without us.”

“Alright then let’s… is that who I think it is?” Laura pointed towards the entrance of the park. We looked over to where she was pointing. I let out a smirk. There standing at the entrance where four figures wearing red and blue uniforms.

It was time to get the fight I wanted out of these idiots.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I felt myself freeze again. They were here again. The Team Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma members from the day before.

“Hey, Ralts Boy!” The team Magma leader, Chris I think his name was, called out to me with an outstretched finger.

“You have something of ours!” The team Aqua leader Dwain said.

“You mean something of ours,” Charlie remarked.

“Hey, this truce was your idea!” Carol yelled as she pointed her finger at Charlie who pushed her glasses up with her finger.

“Truce?” I squeaked out.

“Yeah, you heard her.” Chris crossed his arms and glared at me. “We’ve put aside our differences for now so that we can take back that Shroomish.”

“So who gets the little guy on the highly unlikely chance that you idiots take him from Nikki?”

“What’d you call us?” Carol tried to leap at us in outrage but was held back by Dwain holding her the back of her collar. It reminded me of a trainer holding back an angry poochyena.

“What else would you call someone who wears super heavy clothes in this heat?” Laura pointed out and I found myself agreeing with her a little. It wasn’t the peak of summer but it was still pretty hot out for hoodies and baggy clothes.

“You don’t have to worry about that part,” Charlie explained. “That’s for us to figure out later.” She glanced over. “I think you can let her down now.”

Dwain carefully let go of Carol collar. She kept glaring at us.

The four of them took out pokéballs and lined up against us.

“Looks like the cops aren’t stopping it this time.” Laura glared at them. “But this time we both have two pokémon good to go. You ready for your first double battle?”

“Guess I’ll have to,” I remarked as Brook and Shroomish stood in front of me. Oddish and Doduo took their spot next to them.

Our opponents called out their pokémon.

“Go Vulpix!” Chris yelled.

“Let’s teach them a lesson they won’t forget Corphish.” Dwain grabbed his shoulder and waved his arm around.

“Finish this quick Baltoy.” Charlie adjusted her glasses.

“Take them down Poochyena.” Carol jumped up and landed with a stomp.

“I’ll take care of the Poochyena and Baltoy,” Laura whispered.

“Brook against Vulpix and Shroomish against Corphish?”

She smiled. “Now you’re getting it.”

I faced down the two leaders and narrowed my eyes.

“Vulpix, burn that ralts.”

“Corphish, grab the shroomish and bring it here.”

Their commands threw me for a loop. I had been expecting them to go the other way round. Well, no time to worry about it, not when I had a fight on my hands.

“Brook, confusion boost out of the way. Shroomish, get ready.”

Brook pointed her arms downwards and blasted upwards to avoid the flames that shot out from the Vulpix’s mouth. Shroomish stood firm as Corphish got closer.

“Brook use confusion on Vulpix.” The psychic blast that Brook let loose served to purposes. It forced Vulpix to either dodge or take the hit, meaning that they couldn’t attack. It also kept Brook from being a sitting duck in the air.

I grimaced, Corphish had gotten close enough. “Shroomish now, use absorb.”

Shroomish ducked under the Corphish’s claw and slammed into the crab. Shroomish began glowing green as Corphish cried out. Corphish shrunk back in pain from the super effective attack.

“Follow up with tackle.” Shroomish dashed forward like he had done earlier against Brook. Much like Brook, Corphish was sent flying. I pumped my feet only to feel panic as I heard Brook let out a cry of pain.

I looked over and saw Brook holding a small red spot on her arm and glaring at Vulpix.

“The trick to winning a double battle,” Laura managed to say between commands. “Is to not let yourself… Doduo, fury attack now! To not let yourself get too caught up with one pokémon is doing. Oddish, use acid to keep Poochyena on the run. Keep your attention split 50/50.” With her advice given, she went back to focusing on her own battle.

“Vulpix, use ember again.” I grimaced as another round of sparks flew at Brook.

“Brook hit the ember with confusion.” The wave of green energy collided with the flames, negating both. Corphish, meanwhile, had finally gotten back to their feet.

“Alright, no more playing nice!” The Team Neo-Aqua declared. “Corphish, use Bubble beam.”

“Hey, we agreed to go easy on the Shroomish to make it easier to convince it to join us!” The Team Neo-magma leader glared at his temporary ally. “Vulpix use tackle.” He added in, almost like an afterthought.

“Well, it’s not like it’s going to go to you guys anyway,” Dwain commented, causing Chris to grind his teeth. It looked like the Team Neo-Aqua leader was more concerned with getting a rise out of his teammate than the battle.

Not that it mattered to Corphish who unleashed a torrent of bubbles at Shroomish. He didn’t have time to dodge, instead bracing himself for the hit.

Seeing my first pokémon face down a charging opponent while my second pokémon took the full force of an attack was something that probably should have worried me. But it didn’t, it really didn’t.

Because I saw an opportunity. “Shroomish, hang in there. Brook hit Vulpix with a weak confusion to slow them down.” Brook took aim and fired, slowing the charging fox down but not stopping them all the way. Chris barely noticed.

Vulpix was slowed, Corphish was still unleashing a bubble beam, and it looked like the two Team Leaders were getting ready to argue again.

Perfect.

“Now, grab her head and use growl,” I commanded Brook who pulled off the same maneuver that we had used on Doduo yesterday. And just like our match with the bird, the growl sent the fox stumbling backwards in a daze. “Now circle around to the left and launch her into the bubble beam with a confusion at full power.”

Brook had a vicious look on her face as she followed my commands, even making a bit of a show of pushing her arms into Vulpix before sending the fox flying in an explosion of green psychic energy.

Shroomish found himself the chance to breathe easy as Vulpix was thrown into the bath of the bubbles. Corphish stopped the attack but wasn’t fast enough to keep all of the bubbles off their teammate.

“Hey what is your crab doing?” Chris grabbed Dwain by his shirt and yelled into his face.

“Hey, it’s not my fault that your mutt got in the way of our attack! Now get off me before I rearrange our face!”

“Get out of my way you incompetent!” I turned to the side and saw the two girls were also at each other’s throats. The satisfied look on Laura’s face told me that thing had gone according to her plan too. Looked like the enemy’s unity was failing on all fronts.

“It’s not Poochyena fault that your Baltoy’s so bitable!” Carol yelled into Charlie’s face.

“That’s it!” Chris yelled. “Charlie, this alliance is over! Vulpix, give that Poochyena a burning it won’t forget.”

“Corphish, take care of that overgrown top toy.” The six of watched as Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma collapsed into infighting. Brook, in particular, looked torn between disappointed from missing out on her fight and enjoying the show. I glance over at Laura and made a certain hand motion, rubbing my fingers together like I was applying salt to my food.

She grinned and did it too, which I hoped meant that she got my plan.

I waited for all four of the pokémon to group up together. The second they did, I put my plan in motion.

“Now shroomish,”

“Oddish get ready,”

“Stun Spore!” We both called out as golden spores erupted from both grass types and showered over all four of them. They all froze in place as the spores did their work.

“What did you do?” All four of the team members asked. They glared at us until they noticed something very important. Specifically the fact that all of their pokémon were now disabled and that all four of own were just fine.

They all looked at each other for a moment and all apparently came to the same conclusion. That the tides had not shifted in their favor.

“Return!” They all recalled their pokémon.

“Scatter!” They all ran in different directions.

We watched as the four ran off into the distance. I couldn’t help but snicker as I watched Carol trip over her own feet on her run back.

“Well looks like we managed to handle that one pretty well,” Laura smiled as she raised her hand up for a high-five. A high-five that I was glad to return. “By the way,”

“Yeah?”

“Shouldn’t we get to the boat?”

I blinked.

“Brook, Shroomish, return,” I called back both of my pokémon and clipped them to my pocket. Laura did the same for Oddish and Doduo and then we were both off.

There was no way I was missing this boat and by extension, my first gym badge.


End file.
